


Merry-Go-Round Goes

by ma_rendezvous



Series: Merry-Go-Round Goes [1]
Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-06 23:04:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4240038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ma_rendezvous/pseuds/ma_rendezvous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Car

**Author's Note:**

> crossposted from ma_rendezvous@livejournal  
> This fanfic is nothing but a paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)

Takaki Yuya bumped anyone—of men with best unwrinkled tuxedos and women with expensive sparkling dresses—who blocked up his way without even saying an apology like he had always been thaught of since he was born. He was running crankily after his client, a _very important_ client of his, who had just walked away from the crowd and went out of the building as fast as a lightning, leaving all that hundred thousands yen worth party that had been prepared to welcome him home behind.  
  
“Yabu, hey, _Yabu_! Where _the hell_ do you think you are going?!” The lawyer shouted when he passed the front door in the lobby, of a skyscrapper where the party was being held. “Are you seriously leaving? It’s your company’s celebration and you're—”  
  
“My father’s, not mine.” The tall man with parted, a bit wavy brown hair and grey suits and shiny and expensive dark brown loafers cut his lawyer mid-sentence as he casually climbed into a Chevrolet Camaro in front of the main entrance. “I need some fresh air, gonna go right back.” He said, half slamming down the car’s door right in front of Takaki’s nose.  
  
“You’re gonna get lost!”  
  
“That’s why they invented GPS.” Yabu shrugged.  
  
“Don’t be ridiculous, _Young Master_! Isn’t this the first time you came back to Japan after—what, ten years? You can't even read advanced kanji!” Takaki furrowed his eyebrows, his voice had lost half of its lawyer’s manner because Yabu _friggin'_ Kota—his client, who was coincidentally also his childhood friend—apparently had this unbelievable thirteen-years-old-brat unbelievable action as a half century old prosper. “Besides, it’s _my_ car, what’s going on with _yours_?”  
  
Yabu rested his right hand on the steering wheel. He tilted up his head a little and pulled down the visor and expected something would fall down onto him, but found none instead. He disappointedly turned his head to Takaki and said, “They’re still on their way to Japan. It’s kind of hard to ship them from New York City. Now will you ever lend me the keys or not?”  
  
“You can’t just drive around here; you don’t have license and you can’t drive cars with wheels on the fucking _right_ side!”  
  
“Of course I can, I’m a left-handed by nature, I can deal with left-sided roadways. I’ll be fine.”  
  
“That’s not the point!”  
  
“You know you can’t stop me, Takaki. Now can I have the keys or not?”  
  
There was a bitter pause between them that lasted longer than it truly was. The sound of the classical music played inside the building could somehow vaguely be heard from their place, and yet none of them could care less about it. Clicking his tongue in frustration at last, Takaki fished out his car keys and passed it to Yabu, who was then spreading a sly grin over his face as he caught the key and started the engine of Takaki’s Chevrolet without any more protest from the slightly younger guy.  
  
For the umpteenth of times, Takaki was easily defeated by his friend slash client’s stubborn and unbelieavable wishes. And for the umpteenth of times in his life already, Yabu was leaving such important business parties to Takaki to handle _alone_ , leaving him works that he wasn’t really supposed to do if not because Yabu was his _friend_. Yabu did pay him good extra money for that, which sometimes left the lawyer wonder if he ever were a real ‘friend’ to the said heir of Yabu Multinational Corporation or not. It’s not like he hated this certain Yabu guy, anyway. Sometimes he just pitied him too much he thought he’s actually spoiling him.  
  
“Just don’t scratch it or I’ll kill you for sure.” Takaki said, trying to sound threatening but failed, because Yabu's grin grew wider after that.  
  
The said heir of Yabu Multinational Coorporation then swung his two fingers in a salute manner before rolling up the car window, and as fast as another lightning that is Yabu Kota, he drove away from the city.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
“How could _you_?!”  
  
It was a yell that everybody could hear from across the dance floor. Some of the heads under the vividly colorful, hanging in the ceiling mirror ball averted their gaze to Inoo Kei and his sparkling yet smaller roommate, Tegoshi Yuya, who apparently had an argument over money like always. Indeed, the whole ‘bar’ had long to acknowledge that both Inoo and Tegoshi were always arguing about their seem-to-always-suddenly-disappear money every first week of the month, for almost a year already. It had been several years by then, yet they seemed like they never got bored over such issue.  
  
“Calm down, Kei-chan” Tegoshi, dressing with pink oversized knit-wear on top of a ripped black tank-top and a somehow shabby denim rolled his eyes. He parted his platinum blonde hair behind his left ears, and Inoo could see how the long earing attached to his senior's earlobe was reflecting the lights of the mirror ball. "Your voice is louder then the DJ’s music, and you're creeping everyone out."  
  
Tegoshi walked towards the bar and grabbed a plate before serving himself a cheese cake, ignoring the shout of _'That is not free, Tegoshi!'_ from a known bartender, and Inoo was following close behind him, still in rage.  
  
“I don't care!" Inoo, who wore a rather modest style unlike other prostitute around him—with only ripped jeans, a deep v-neck black t-shirt, a pair of shabby boots, and a blonde wig adorning his head—shouted again. "It was our rent money for this month and you just spent it on some ridiculous shots, I can't believe it!"  
  
“Should I remind you that it’s actually _my_ apartment?”  
  
“But I’m living there _too_ , and we _share_ the rent by half so I have the _right_ to protest!”  
  
"Look, Kei-chan," Tegoshi tilted up his head and stared at Inoo who was taller than him, his face annoyed and not the least seem to enjoy the cheese cake that he was eating. He was probably still high due to his newly consumed cocaine. "I gave you everything; my money, my place for you to stay, my advice so that you can survive. And it should at least teaches you some respect! That that's just _not_ how you're supposed to treat me like!"  
  
Clicking his tongue in frustration, Inoo threw his gaze away from his roommate, and instead ended up observing his messed up surrounding; the constantly changing UV like that hurt your eyes, the very loud music, the sight of people of the same sex dancing on the dance floor, some of them naked. This was 'the bar', the place where he usually hung around before got down to the street, the one of so many night clubs open around the infamous Shinjuku Ni Chome where people usually came to seek some 'pleasure service' from guys like either Tegoshi or Inoo.  
  
Sighing, he grabbed a cheese cake and ate it in a bite before heading out of the filthy place.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
The data was all re-set and the re-loading of the GPS system made him impatient. In his silent anger, Yabu slammed his large palm to the monitor on Takaki's car dashboard and resulted to an error message that were all written in a row of unreadable kanji. The road was all empty and it was only two hours before midnight, and Yabu wondered how could Japan survive any economic crissis if everything around the main street of Shinjuku were all closed right when the clock pointed to nine o'clock. Well, he did study economy in Columbia University and apparently, soon after graduated from the master program, he was given the task by his father to take care of his corporation branch in Tokyo. But he was so used to the seemingly immortal live of New York City, and everything that he saw on TV about Japan was probably some kind of delusion.  
  
And to tell the truth, driving a car which wheel was completely the opposite of the kind of cars you usually drove on a right-sided roadways felt like hell. Yabu had almost collided into everything in front of him, and he had to admit that his left-handed nature was kind of useless in this situation.  
  
Nevertheless, the hotel he was staying was supposed to be quite close to the main train station of the city. When he passed a street where he could see a rather familiar train station in there, so he just went along straight and carelessly passed a placard on the street that said: Shinjuku Ni Chome.  
  
Under his silent curse, Yabu decided to just try and go along the narrowing street and ask whoever seen walking down the street.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
The sound of two pairs of black boots—one pair was a knee-length latex boots while the other was a pair of ankle boots with messy lances—stepping on the asphalt surface of a very lonely neighborhood somehow reverberated, and Tegoshi's whine about food and how he was hungry and need to eat something almost drove Inoo mad. He kept silent and escaped into his own world, however, because there were nothing else for them to do but waiting for a 'customer' to stop their car and give them money after an hour of sex. Life was harsh and unfair, but Inoo was running out of option. They were poor and capitalism was simply evil.  
  
But suddenly a car passed them and Tegoshi bumped Inoo from behind, making the younger almost fell onto his knees. Inoo stared wondrously at Tegoshi before he realized that the car was stopping some feet away in front of them.  
  
"Isn't that a purple _Bumblebee_?!" Tegoshi whispered in excitement.  
  
Inoo averted his eyes to the said car and noticed that yes, it's the car that he'd seen in movies, just different in colors—instead of yellow they were deep purple. He turned his eyes to Tegoshi again before biting his lower lip.  
  
"That's gonna be one rich customer!" Tegoshi spun Kei around and made the younger face him. He patted Kei's blonde wig and stuck out some pink streaks in it, fixing his junior's appearance while grinning wickedly, before saying, "Okay, Kei-chan, you look _hot_ like always, now go get that guy! And remember, don't sell yourself too cheap!"  
  
Inoo's face was blank when Tegoshi pushed him towards the direction of where the car was stopping. He seemed like he didn't want to have any job that night, but they really needed money to survive or at least not to be kicked out by their apartment tenant. Therefore, after one, two, and the next few steps ahead, Inoo straightened his back and started to gain some self-confidence with the way he walk.  
  
Approaching the mulberry Chevrolet Camaro that was parked carelessly on the empty street, Inoo had turned into another completely different kind of person.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
"Hey, _Mr. Gorgeous_ , looking for a date?"  
  
Yabu was taken aback when he saw someone popping on his window out of the blue. The blonde guy rested his two hands on the open window, smiling sweetly with his glossy reddish lips. The guy wore a dark shade of eyeshadow on his eyelids, and Yabu could somehow see his long lashes, and he couldn't figure out himself whether those lashes were fake or not. As he bent his upper body, Yabu could slightly see his fine chest through his slightly open collar.  
  
The tall brunette could easily guess, however, what job the blonde guy was having and why he suddenly came approaching him, asking him that significant question. He was an adult, and he had gone through streets where prostitutes were offering themselves in Hollywood and Las Vegas. But they were women, and this was Tokyo, and this person offering him a 'service' was particularly a _guy_.  
  
A somewhat _extremely pretty_ guy.  
  
"No." Yabu shook his head yet couldn't stop himself from smiling in amusement. "But I'll be glad if you could show me an address. The GPS’ not working."  
  
"Sure," The blonde guy chuckled. "Two thousand yen will do."  
  
Yabu stared at the guy for a moment before drawing himself backward. His eyes narrowed and his smile fell by a half, the amusement became a sceptical emotion. However, none of them broke the eye contact.  
  
"How entertaining."  
  
"That'll make it four."  
  
"... Is this how it works here in this country?" Yabu grinned, thinking that he was so not going to lose to this random Shinjuku prostitute. "That I have to pay to get back to my hotel?"  
  
"You're not from around here, are you, Mr. Gorgeous?" The blonde chuckled almost mockingly, showing a smug, confident grin to Yabu Kota. "I see. Welcome to Tokyo, enjoy getting lost around the town."  
  
The guy stood up straight and was about to leave Yabu alone when Yabu suddenly had this urge to call him back. Maybe it was because he wasn't familiar with Tokyo eventhough it was his birth place, maybe he was afraid that someone more terrible would approach him and do something bad to him, or maybe, _just_ maybe, he was having this endless amusement towards the beautiful queer hooker.  
  
"Hey, okay, wait,"  
  
Yabu's voice immediately stopped the guy's feet from walking away from the violet car. He went back to the car, resting his two hands on the window again, spreading a smile that Yabu almost believed looking like an innocent one.  
  
"I'll give you five thousands. Now, how does that sound?"  
  
"Sounds like gotta take you to the hotel." He said as he, without being excused by the person behind the wheel, climbed into the mulberry Chevrolet and made himself comfortable in the passanger seat. "So, where was your hotel, again?"  
  
"Park Hyatt." Yabu couldn't help himself scanning the other guy's ripped jeans. It was ripped large enough that he could see most of the smooth mily skin underneath the material. There was also this slightly open tore on the left thigh part and Yabu could almost see the blonde's crotch through it. No boxers, _figured_.  
  
The prositute made an 'o' with his mouth, looking like he couldn't believe that Yabu didn't even know the best and one of the highest skyscrappest in the whole Tokyo. The peak of the skyscrapper could be easily seen from Shinjuku Ni Chome at days, but it was already dark so Inoo didn’t bother to explain. Besides, he just wanted the money.  
  
He chuckled, then, and with a somewhat seductive face, he said, "That hotel's just on the other side of the Station."  
  
"I won't hire you if I knew where it was." Yabu replied as he smiled, his lips slanting to the right side. "So, what's your name?"  
  
"It's Inoo Kei."  
  
"Is that your real name?"  
  
"Depends whether you believe it or not." Inoo shrugged.  
  
They stared at each other for a moment without saying anything. There was an icy cold atmosphere growing through that stare, of scepticism, of amusement, and of other somewhat undescribable emotions. Chuckling in unison to break the suddenly built ice between them, Yabu then changed the transmission and, starting slowing before increasing the speed of Takaki's car, drove away from the dark side of the district, away from the infamous territory for the queers.  
  
  
  
On the way to the hotel, Inoo Kei happened to feel dizzy and thought his heart might jump off of his mouth because the way Yabu was driving was _plainly_ horrible. The tall brunette was confused of almost _everything_ ; the road sign, the transmission, the roadblock's existence, and the fact that he was supposed to drive on the left side of the road didn't seem to gush into his brain. Inoo even remarked in his mind that Tegoshi's horrible way of driving was way better than this young master's.  
  
"Mr. Gorgeous, can you really drive?" Inoo turned his head to Yabu, who surprisingly still had a calm visage on his face.  
  
"This is my first time driving a right-wheeled car, to be honest."  
  
"Aren't you even Japanese?" Inoo furrowed his eyebrows a little, but couldn't hide an amused smile on his face.  
  
"I have Japanese passport."  
  
"Does that mean you've been living in New York City or something your whole time?"  
  
"I _did_. My father sent me here to do business."  
  
" _New York City_?!" Surprised, Inoo half-jumped in excitement on the seat as he turned to face Yabu’s side, his grin had grown wider than before. “That’s rock! So you grew up in there? That’s just—like—super cool, there’re where cool people in the world live! Second after California, I guess?”  
  
"Really?" Yabu smiled, focusing still to the road they were driving through. “All I saw in New York City was the Wall Street and stock market chaos.”  
  
“ _Still_ , it’s awesome!”  
  
Glancing at the excited prostitute next to him, Yabu chucled.  
  
Unknown to the fake blonde, however, the young master was laready sweat-dropping under his white formal shirt. It was still too hard for him to adjust with the right-wheeled car, for after growing up in the United States, it was his first time to drive a vehicle with lots of opposite indeed. But his natural calm demeanor could at least make Inoo believe that he’d make it somehow; which was wrong—because as soon as they almost reached an intersection, Yabu stopped the car on the edge of the street and immediately turned off the machine. Inoo, who looked a bit confused as to why suddenly stopped altough the hotel was still a bit far, was about to ask a question to Yabu, but Yabu was faster to speak.  
  
“So tell me, Kei,” Yabu rested his arm on the steer wheel and turned his head to Inoo. “Have you ever steered a Camaro before?”  
  
“Mostly just old-modified cars. But I drove Subaru once,” Inoo smirked. “It’s my old friend’s car—and not a stolen one, trust me.”  
  
“That’s nice.” Nodding lightly, Yabu then gestured his chin to the window behind him, saying, “This time you’ll have the honor.”  
  
“…Are you joking?”  
  
“I’m always serious with my words.”  
  
Another sort of wide grin appeared on Inoo’s face before the two of them jumped out of the car and exchanged position—Yabu sat on the passanger seat, while Inoo sat behind the wheel. Still with so much excitement in himself, Inoo buckled the seatbelt and rested his two palms on the round steer, his grin never faded. After Yabu finished with his seatbelt himself, Inoo turned to him and his grin turned wider if possible, making Yabu wondered if he did right.  
  
Inoo changed the transmission and started pushing the gas pedal with his right foot, exclaiming, “Here we go!!” to the air.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
The two of them talked about some small trivias in their way to the destined hotel. Most was told by Inoo himself, who told lots of bad thing about Japan, especially Tokyo—about the governments which always tried it best to hide the truth about how Japan had already broken, and about two wings doctrine which Inoo thought is ‘stupid enough that squirrels won’t even eat’—to the newly-came-back-to-Japan-after-ten-years Yabu Kota. They also talked about money, and how Inoo had only started doing his current job for the last one and a half year, after previously almost got jailed for doing illegal street racing— _like that of in Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, just that it was real, and you got lots of money if you won_ , he had explained. Lucky he didn’t do drugs like the other racers.  
  
“How much is your cost, in gross?” Talking about money, Yabu couldn’t help but ask.  
  
“I don’t take less than thirty thousand yen.” Inoo answered, eyes still focused on the street in front of them. There was a proud tone in the way he told his price, which Yabu didn’t fail to catch.  
  
“For a night?”  
  
“Are you kidding? It’s for one hour.”  
  
“… _An hour_?!” Staring at the guy behind the wheel, Yabu gaped in half disbelief. Thirty thousand yen is like two hundreds-something US dollars, and for a price of a street hooker, it was way too expensive. It was as if Inoo was almost as equal as those High-end prostitutes in Beverly Hills. “You got thirty thousand for _an hour_ and you still have those condoms saved in your ankle boots after more than _a year_?”  
  
“Hey, I have _issues_!” Inoo furrowed his eyebrows and shot a glance at Yabu. “Besides, everything in this country is fucking _expensive_! Even your tie is as expensive as a _watermelon_! And how much do you think my goddamned ankle boots cost?”  
  
“Still, it’s thirty thousands and in yen. And for an hour.” Yabu rolled his eyes, turning his gaze to the roadways. “It’s pretty _stiff_.”  
  
“Nah, I don’t think so.” Smirking without setting his eyes to Yabu, Inoo craned his left arm and reached out to the rich guy’s clothed groins, before purposefully stroking him in a circle in a very good way that could make any straight men got hard on him. “But it got a very high _‘potential’_.”  
  
Yabu Kota stared at that white, creamy, and soft hand set on his crotch for a moment, feeling his clothed manhood being stroked so professionally by the prostitute he hired as a replacement of Takaki’s broken GPS, before turning his gaze back to Inoo in a complete amusement. The hooker got a really brave treat in him, he noted in mind.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
The car parked so smoothly in front of the main building of Park Hyatt hotel and both Yabu and Inoo got off of the car at the same time. A porter in red uniform came approaching Yabu immediately and asked whether he would need the car again in anytime soon, and Yabu quickly answered no, and he hoped he wouldn’t need to use Takaki’s car ever again. As the porter took the car key from Inoo and parked the car somewhere else, the blonde hooker chuckled to Yabu’s traumatized-by-right-wheeled-cars behavior but Yabu himself couldn’t care less. He was sure he would get used to Japan’s car system soon enough, he was fast in adaptation anyway. He then approached Inoo and, taking out some money from his wallet, gave him his promised five thousands yen.  
  
“So, are you going to be alright?” Yabu asked, fishing his wallet back into his black pants’ pocket. He couldn’t help to ask such question, though he knew that Inoo had lived way longer in Shinjuku than him, and he practically knew everything about the city. He was also a nightfly, so it ended up his question sounded too retoric.  
  
“Yeah. I’ll just go back to Ni Chome, with a cab, using this money, I guess?” Inoo just grinned as he did the same with his newly received money.  
  
“I see,” Yabu nodded, but stood still anyway in complete silence, his eyes never left Inoo’s brown orbs.  
  
“So, I’ll see you later?”  
  
“Yeah, sure.” Yabu nodded, but not waving back when he saw Inoo raising his right hand and waved to him. The blonde was smiling brightly like nothing happened, before turning on his heels and withdrawing from the hotel’s building, to the luxurious front gate of Park Hyatt Tokyo.  
  
Yabu was just watching as Inoo’s figure walking away from him. He watched Inoo’s back, his ripped all over shabby denim, his black boots, and eventually his fake hair. Yabu himself had been offered a hooker’s service several times in his life, and though he had never hired one, at least he knew how those people also had a standard of appearance. And for a prostitute, Yabu thought, Inoo had a perfect posture; he was lean and had a very nice collarbone. He was also very _beautiful_ , even with that sort of heavy dark make up on, and still way prettier than other strumpets who had ever walked on him on other streets in the world.  
  
A rather cold wind suddenly blew against his body and it sent chill down the young master’s spine. It was becoming a cold night, and probably would get colder later on, making him couldn’t help but wonder if Inoo ever felt cold with that seemingly very thin layer of v-neck black T-shirt.  
  
Before Inoo could reach the gate, suddenly Yabu had this urge to call the prostitute again. Before he was aware of his own deed, Yabu Kota had already been half-running after Inoo Kei and touched his shoulder to get his attention. It was when Inoo turned his body to him, Yabu realized that; that was it, he could no longer back down.  
  
“I was just thinking,” Yabu started, his calm demeanor never left his visage. “It was thirty thousands yen for an hour, right?”  
  
“Yeah?” Inoo smirked.  
  
There was a pause that Yabu made because he wasn’t quite sure of what he was trying to do himself. He was, however, immediately made sure by those sparkling brown eyes few moments afterward. Tonight he would do ‘business’, and it wouldn’t get too different with the way he usually handled his other businesses on any other days, he convinced himself. He also noted in mind that he’d deal with all the consequenses later.  
  
“If you haven’t had any other appointment, I’d like you to come with me into the hotel.”  
  
“Of course.” Smirking, Inoo grabbed Yabu by an arm and locked it together with his, before the both of them walked together back to the triplet skyscrappers. Inoo never lost his grin from his face. “So, _Mr. Gorgeous_ , you got a name?”  
  
“Kota Yabu.”  
  
“Kota is your first name?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“No way, isn’t that a really _cool_ name?”  
  
  
  


*-* To Be Continued *-*


	2. Stiff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> crossposted from ma_rendezvous@livejournal  
> This fanfic is nothing but a paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)

All eyes were instantly set on Inoo Kei as he entered the lobby, arms linked with the hotel’s special guest, Yabu Kota. The old people sitting on a round table were staring at him intensely; another middle aged man in grey suits lowered the newspaper he was reading just to take a glance at Inoo; even a couple who was discussing about something near a table with giant vase and flowers were averting their gaze to him—either male or female. Inoo’s figure was as distracting as a blooming lonely flower in a savana, with his fake blonde hair adorned with pink streaks so stood out among black and grey, and his seemingly messy style—his black v-neck t-shirt, his ripped all over denim, and his ankle boots which made endless sounds as he walked further inside.  
  
Concisely, Inoo’s whole appearance was a bit too _out of place_.  
  
“...Whoa…” Inoo exclaimed, unconsciously tightening his hands on Yabu’s arm, shouting out loud to the air and attracting even more eyes to him. He wandered his eyes to the wonderfulness of the inside of the famous Park skyscrappers; the carved glasses pane, the hanging gloriously chandelier, the green garden right in the middle of the entire space. He had expected the hotel to be classy and expensive and _all_ , but this was just extraordinarily so.  
  
“Relax.” Yabu whispered, a little annoyed because Inoo didn’t want to let go of his arm. However, through their linked arms Yabu could feel Inoo’s uneasiness, and when he turned his face to his company, the smaller guy was stroking his nose for no reason. Somehow consoled but pitying him at the same time, Yabu whispered again, “Kei, let go. And stop fidgeting.”  
  
Inoo pouted and drew back his arm from Yabu’s, but letting the rich guy leading him to the elevator. As they waited for the elevator to open its door for the two of them, Inoo started to become aware that he was the center of the attention in the whole lobby. His nervousness disappeared in an instant, and he wandered his eyes and met a pair of dark brown eyes of an unknown man standing next to Yabu. The guy—not as tall as Yabu, and was probably around his mid 30s, but Inoo could somehow see his hair had been growing grey—was also waiting for the elevator just like them. The difference was that this certain rich guy with expensive looking blazer was staring so intensely at the blonde hooker.  
  
Smirking seductively, Inoo lifted his right hand up and set his palm on his collar, tilting his head to the right, purposefully stroking his collarbone and exposing more of his pale skin to the random guy. He also parted his lips as he smile, hlaf-liding his already droppy eyes while biting his lower lip in the best _inviting_ way possible. The way he stared at the random guy was emitting some kind of _‘I’m ready for you whenever you want me,’_ atmosphere. All of these sexy gestures came out naturally from Inoo, as if he were still standing there on the sidewalk of Ni Chome.  
  
Yabu, however, noticed Inoo’s movement, but could only stare in a complete silence. At first, he did not want to make a fuss out of it, about Inoo who’s trying to seduce someone else though he had a contract with him. It was Inoo’s job anyway, Yabu tried to convince himself. But he couldn’t help but get annoyed when he accidentally laid his eyes on the random guy. The much older guy was probably started to notice Inoo’s _invitation_ , and he was grinning from ear to ear so pervertedly that it looked disgusting as well as dangerous. Yabu then sharply glared at the guy, purposefully blocking his vision to where Inoo was standing, and the guy lost his grin altogether, at the same time when the elevator made a _ding_ sound and opened its door to one side.  
  
If glaring could kill, Yabu would probably have murdered the random guy by then.  
  
Yabu pushed Inoo gently towards the elevator and the two of them entered the hoist, while the guy still standing on his spot, drenching in cold-sweat, before bowing himself to Yabu and walking towards another elevator. Somehow glad that the random rich guy with greying hair had chosen to use other elevator, Yabu calmly pushed the close button as if nothing had happened.  
  
“Did you just _scare_ him away?” Inoo suddenly asked, staring bemusedly at the tall brunette next to him.  
  
“Did _not_.” Yabu answered somehow confidently but childishly, a small, slanted smile appeared on his face as he pushed the 50th floor button.  
  
  
  
  
The lobby of the Park building might have made Inoo amazed, but the room of Park Hyatt Tokyo where Yabu was apparently staying at had successfully made his jaw literally dropped. The entire room was so spacious and wide and _exclusive_ that he believed he could get lost inside it himself. As he walked further into the apartment after taking off his ankle boots near the front door, he was welcomed by a baby grand piano just right before a wide window showing the beautiful night panorama. He also couldn’t help but to touch the black wood of the grand piano and adore the black and white ivory keys. He then skipped to another part of the living room, ‘wow’-ing to a small library and the 50 inch plasma television, suddenly asking whether he’s allowed to turn it on. Yabu nodded to him, and another ‘wow’ slipped out of his mouth as he found the television, instead of NHK or TBS, was showing a foreign channel; NBC.  
  
“An _American_ channel?” Inoo hung the remote control close to his chest as he turned half of his body to Yabu’s direction.  
  
The young master shrugged without responding to the question. He walked towards his working desk behind the baby piano, where a set of laptop, lots of books, and piles of papers and documents were set on. He was loosing up his tie with a hand, but not taking off his suit.  
  
“I assume this is your first time visiting a penthouse?” Yabu asked, his eyes scanning Inoo’s behavior.  
  
“Of course not. I’ve been to Ritz’s—well, lots of times before, but it was just not this wide.” Inoo moved to the window, getting a little too over excited to the panorama of Shinjuku and Yoyogi that looked like an illumination show on New Year’s Eve. “Wow, this is so _beautiful_! I can even see Ni Chome from here! I wonder if 'Bukuro—” He stopped mid-sentence, however, when he realized he had turned loose though only a little.  
  
He was there to work, how could he almost forget about that.  
  
“You like it?” Yabu asked from behind his study desk while compiling files that he had, but for a reason his eyes were focusedly staring at Inoo instead.  
  
Smirking temptingly, Inoo walked towards Yabu’s desk and sat on the study table, settling himself on Yabu’s compiled documents without caring whether they were important documents or just a mere blank papers. He bent his body a little to Yabu’s direction, posing himself in a way so that Yabu could see more of his skin under his ripped jeans. Yabu _did_ take a glance at the skin of his thighs, but his calm demeanor made Inoo wonder if his mind wandered to the place he had expected.  
  
“I love it. Well, I’m a bit acrophobic—you know acrophobic, right? Of course you do, you’re a smart one—so yeah, I can’t stand balconies. But I like panoramas from high buildings. And observinging buildings from above.” The fake blonde said rather excitedly, but keeping his voice low and sexy. He opened up his legs a little further and said, “So, what’s the plan, _Ko-chan_?”  
  
The rich brunette was a bit taken aback when the hooker suddenly changed his address to him to a completely different one. However still, he didn’t seem to mind and only smiled listening to whatever Inoo was saying. He was kind of amused to the fact that, although there was another chair beside his study desk and other soft and fluffy sofas inside the suite room, the pretty nightfly still decided to sit on the table in front of him, seducing him in a rather conventional way.  
  
“I _don’t_ know. I didn’t have plan for this.” Yabu said honestly, leaning his back comfortably onto the back of his chair. His head tilted upward, his eyes never left Inoo’s brown ones.  
  
“You’re not the go-with-the-flow type?”  
  
“Not really,” The rich shook his head a little.  
  
“Me neither.” Inoo pouted as he threw his gaze to the ceiling. “I’ve been a planner since—I don’t know—since I was born, maybe? Because, you know,” He chuckled, averting his eyes back to Yabu, but got no response.  
  
“Time is money.”  
  
“Yeah.” Inoo nodded. “It’s a common phrase for any working men—like _you_ and _me_. You’re agree with that, right? I mean, you’re here to do business.”  
  
There was a pause built in between the two of them as Yabu decided not to answer Inoo’s rather retorical question. And it was a little confusing for Inoo’s part, because he had imagined he’d be naked and giving blow job or lying in the bed, all naked, screaming pleasure to the rich young man at this very moment instead of talking so openly like a long time _friend_. At the same time, he couldn’t somehow predict what Yabu’s smile meant, whether he really wanted to use his bottom or not. He didn’t even seem like he had an interest in sex at all.  
  
“Ah, by the way,” Clueless as what else he had to do, Inoo shifted a little closer to Yabu and sat right in front of him, straddling his legs apart, placing his thighs between Yabu’s chair. He fished out a pack of black and pink condom and showed it to the taller guy. “No, I don’t save my condoms in my boots because it’s too old-school. But I have a really pretty _badass_ one. Look, it’s pink and dotted and has butterfly pattern in it; so beautiful and super safe! _Nothing_ can go through this, trust me. And don’t you think the color is pretty? It’s pink—well—a bit visual, you see, but very _stylish_. Do you want to use it? Oh, trust me, it feels _fucking_ good.”  
  
Chuckling in amusement after another long pause that felt like forever, Yabu stood up and took off his coat. Inoo was reaching his hands out and about to help Yabu taking off his attire and make it quick, when unexpectedly his hands were stopped by Yabu’s larger palms altogether. Without loosing his pure yet mysterious smile, the taller guy then walked away from his desk, leaving Inoo all alone in there, mouth gaping in disbelief, heart racing, completely _dumbfounded_.  
  
After one and a half year of doing the job as a hooker, it was his first time being rejected by his own customer.  
  
“Why don’t we just _relax_ for a bit? Treat yourself. There’s a mini-bar over there. They serve high quality _Nihon-shu_.” Yabu pointed his fingers to another corner of the room where the said mini-bar was located, as he put his coat on one of the lazy couches in the living room and took off his tie. “Or would you prefer champagne? I can order some, and some strawberries as well.”  
  
Biting the inside of his cheek, Inoo put his contraceptives back into the back of his jeans pocket before jumping off of the table and approaching his employer in the living room. Watching the tall brunette picking up some books from the living room’s coffee table, Inoo took a seat himself on an arm of the biggest couch, a feet away from Yabu.  
  
“I don’t drink alcohol, thank you.” Inoo said, crossing his arms on his chest.  
  
“You don’t drink alcohol, you don’t do drugs, you have the safest condoms with you.” As he grinned, Inoo could see Yabu’s eyes turned into two cute lines. “Aren’t you a bit too _stiff_ , seriously? Don’t tell me you’re also a… vegetarian?” He said jokingly.  
  
“No.” Inoo shook his head, puffing his left cheek. “I’m just a good citizen.”  
  
Which was a complete lie, because he knew he valued nothing as a citizen of the city with his current job and all.  
  
He was still, with his eyes wide and somewhat innocent, watching all of Yabu’s movement; the way the older rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt, the way he opened the fridge and took out a big bin full of mineral water, the way he poured the water onto two flute glasses, and the way he approached Inoo with the glasses in his both hands. The young master then handed Inoo one of the glasses, before walking back towards his study desk. He sat on the same chair as before, and as he opened his laptop and switched it on, he drank the water as if it were the most delicious liquid in the world.  
  
“So, you’re gonna pay me to _‘relax’_ and have a carpet picnic in your hotel room or _something_?” Inoo asked from the living room, his visage blank and not as seductive as before. He was confused by all of these nice behavior. In fact, he was starting to get annoyed with whatever Yabu was doing. “I’m sorry, Gorgeous, but my charge is _per hour_ , so if you could make it quick—”  
  
“ _Time is money_ , yeah?” Yabu cut him mid-sentence. He tilted up his head from his laptop’s monitor and stared at Inoo from across the room. The stare was sharp and firm that Inoo got chill creeping down his spine. “I think I get one of your _issues_. We’re both just doing our ‘business’ anyway, ain’t we. But what about you stay here for the night?”  
  
Surprised, Inoo bit his lips in hesitancy. Never in his life before had a customer offered him to stay for a whole night. His customers, men, women, they were all just the exact same. They only used his body to release their untold lust, or their mere desire towards pretty guys like him. They usually offered him money for a good sex—sometimes with kinks, sometimes with a bit of bondage and sadomasocism, if they provided him extra bucks—and then ditched him again on the streets in less than two hours, kicking him away on the streets like an empty can.  
  
But this certain rich guy, a certain businessman, the richest customer Inoo had ever got in his whole life, who seemed like he wouldn’t run out of money for seven generations, was offering him—a Ni Chome _prostitute_ , a _male_ whore, a _trash_ —to stay the whole night, in such a massive hotel room with baby grand piano in it, one of the most expensive penthouses in the whole Japan, just to do almost nothing but _talk_.  
  
“A night stay?” Inoo tried to keep his quivering confidence. He hid it with his smirk and chuckle as he swung his flute glass in the air, fixing his position in a cocky way. “You _couldn’t_ afford it.”  
  
“Try me.”  
  
Almost losing his own words, Inoo tried to think of a huge number to make the rich guy back off. And a number of money which appeared immediately in his mind was the rent fee of his shared apartment with Tegoshi. It was a small apartment in Toshima district, but living in the heart of Tokyo costed as high as its crazy skyscrappers. The craziest thing was that they couldn’t just move out, because the strings of their lives had been attached to the Capital City since what seemed like forever. They were barely made it, anyway, but thanks to Ni Chome they could survive. Now that their apartment rent was due tomorrow morning, Inoo couldn’t think of anything else.  
  
“Seventy two thousands.” Inoo dared, watching closely Yabu’s expression as he said his tariff. Besides, he needed that money so that he and Tegoshi wouldn’t get kicked out from their apartment by tomorrow afternoon.  
  
“ _Deal_.” Without even thinking about it, Yabu nodded. “No problem. Now, we can loose it up.”  
  
The moment Yabu turned his head to his laptop again while smiling mysteriously, the moment Inoo realized that the night would be a really long one.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
“I know _that_ , Kitayama, but I need the reports of Yaotome Industries’ stock numbers—yes, I know.”  
  
Yabu mumbled, his fingers dancing on his laptop’s keyboards considerably fast. A set of earphones were plugged into his earlobes, and he was talking via FaceTime Audio—his only tool to communicate with his lawyers without having to sign a damned contract with any Japanese providers, because he believed he wouldn’t be long staying in Japan—with his lawyer through his latest iPhone series, letting Inoo doing whatever he wanted to do across the room.  
  
“ _Uh_ -huh. No—of course _not_. I’ve got the numbers from London already, from Takaki's report. Whatever. I _don’t_ care. Solve it by seven, okay?”  
  
With that, he hung up the phone and sighed wearily.  
  
It was already past two in the morning and Yabu hadn’t even yet changed his clothes. He hadn’t stood up from his study desk for hours either, not to mention talking to Inoo whom he hired to stay for a whole night. As he tilted up his head to observe what the hooker was doing, he felt somehow relieved finding that Inoo, sitting on one of the two long coaches in the living room with his two legs upraised and hugged by his arms, was laughing at past midnight’s television show, not minding his dimmed surrounding at all. The fake blonde looked careless and free, and as Yabu observed the back of the blonde’s head, he felt kind of jealous to his bold freedom. Though just a little bit, maybe.  
  
He pitied Inoo a little bit, though, because, well, they hadn’t even talked for hours, and it was as if Yabu was hiring the hooker just to imprison him inside a cage made of gold.  
  
Pulling his earphones from his lobes, Yabu stood up and walked into the living room, deciding to sit on another coach on Inoo’s left. The businessman then leaned further into the couch, feeling its softness and fluffiness welcomed his body comfortably. He rested his head on the couch’s back pillow and closed his eyes, resting his brain a little bit while listening to whatever the people in the television was talking about, as well as being attentive to Inoo’s laughter. There was a time that Inoo didn’t laugh, but he didn’t mind it.  
  
It felt somehow peaceful.  
  
Having _someone else_ inside the room had made him feel peaceful.  
  
Nonetheless, he didn’t anticipate it when he felt a weigh placed on top of his thighs out of the blue. At the same time as he opened his eyes, Inoo had been there, sitting on his lap, his hands encircling themselves around Yabu’s neck.  
  
“You said I’m quite _stiff_.” Inoo said temptingly, half-liding his eyes as he leaned down, shortening the gap between their faces until Yabu could feel every exhalation of his breath. He aimed to the right side of Yabu’s face, touching the taller’s skin with the tip of his nose. “I think _you_ ’re stiff yourself.”  
  
The taller male didn’t say anything in response. Nevertheless, in his silence, he let Inoo stroke their clothed crotch together and moved so illegally sexual while sucking on his right earlobe. Yabu was dead tired and he wanted sleep so bad, yet he couldn’t do it because he had to go to his father’s branch office by seven in the morning, which irritated him in the best way possible. But he needed to settle things up if he wanted to succeed in buying all of the old Yaotome Goro’s massive dockyard in Miyagi, or else he wouldn’t be able to go back to United States in forever. Yet the hooker he hired to accompany him throughout the night was now on his lap, distracting him, making him feeling hazy like never before.  
  
“I need to leave early this morning, you know.” Yabu mumbled, his eye half-closed and both of his hands palms sub-consciously rested on Inoo’s hips, never pushing the smaller guy away. “I have work.”  
  
“Just _relax_ , Ko-chan.” Inoo responded, throwing a repetition to Yabu's own comment, completely ignoring the taller’s direct dictation. He buried the fingers of his right hand into Yabu’s brown locks, using his other hand to slowly unbuttoning the snaps of Yabu’s white shirt one after another. Once all of the snaps were opened, Inoo roamed his palm on Yabu’s chest, stroking, teasing his right nipple, letting the completely opened white shirt hung there on Yabu’s body as a view.  
  
Yabu, on the other side, let out a long sigh, for all he could do was staring at the man above him.  
  
To tell the truth, the stroke around the genital felt good—no, it felt _incredible_. Every bit of Inoo’s movement hardened him so easily. Inoo was taking off his shirt, licking, biting, sucking on his neck, his hands roaming on his chest to his lower stomach, and eventually unbuckling his belt, unzipping his pants with both of his hands, releasing Yabu’s hardened member and grasping it with both palms. The hooker pulled his body backward a little as he massaged Yabu’s manhood upward, downward, slowly, _lazily_ , and he smiled pleasingly to how warm and comfortable it felt in his hands.  
  
And Inoo’s smile was _beautiful_ , that Yabu was dazed for a moment, and decided to just give it up.  
  
“What do you do?” He asked, twirling the prostitute’s blonde wig, finding a bit of the color of his true hair underneath.  
  
“ _Everything_.” Inoo answered as he pressed his forehead against Yabu’s. “Except kissing on the lips. It’s too personal. I _don’t_ do personal.”  
  
 _Which means fucking someone you barely know at all isn’t as personal as kissing them on the lips, huh?_  
  
“Me neither.” Yabu lied. There was a disappointment in his voice but he kept it well hidden under his nearly-absolute calm demeanor.  
  
Inoo stood up from Yabu’s lap and sat on the floor, before spreading the businessman’s legs further apart as he positioned his fake blonde head comfortably in between. He rested his arms on Yabu’s thighs, his palms found their way back to Yabu’s proudly aroused penis. The hooker started kissing the tip of Yabu’s arousal, twirling his pink tongue around it again and again, wetting it all over. He grinned when he saw Yabu’s tip started dripping pre-cum, and before he swallowed all of Yabu’s member inside of his mouth, he looked up to see the taller in the face.  
  
All that Yabu could see, however, was how _frustratingly_ sexual Inoo’s expression had become.  
  
All that he could feel at the same time was how amazing Inoo’s mouth felt around his private member.  
  
Overwhelmed by these sensations, Yabu groaned and rested his head on the couch’s back. His misty eyes were staring at the ceiling, his nose hitching—at some points holding his breath everytime Inoo pulled his head almost all the way to the tip before slamming down and deep-throating his member. Inoo was bobbing his head again and again and _again_ , and Yabu was hazy and dizzy and his mind wondering how Inoo could be this amazing with his mouth, and he couldn’t help but to imagine kissing this certain guy called Inoo Kei on the lips, doing him good favor in return. All and all, these things lingering in his head as he groaned and started holding Inoo’s blonde scalp with his large palms while thrusting his hips onto Inoo’s mouth a bit violently, was sending him to his edge, and he couldn’t hold back to cum inside that warm carven.  
  
And when he tilted down his head, the young master watched it closely as Inoo swallowed all of his seed _almost_ innocently, _almost_ as if he never worked as a prostitute.  
  
 _Almost_ as if he were Yabu’s lover.  
  
“Kei,”  
  
The hoarse and trembling sound of Yabu’s voice somehow sent shiver down Inoo’s spine. He smirked triumphantly when he made to convince himself that Yabu was once again turned on.  
  
Yabu sat up straight and took Inoo by the wrist, asking the blonde to stand up and sit back on his lap. Inoo cheerfully complied, his legs straddled between the rich businessman’s hips, again, stroking his clothed genital with Yabu’s now freed one. And without Yabu’s command, Inoo started taking his deep v-neck t-shirt off, guiding one of Yabu’s hands to rest on his chest, stroking him there. He took out a condom and massaged Yabu’s arousing member again while leaning down to his face and starting to sucking on the taller male’s earlobe so sensually.  
  
In between their heavy, somehow hot and lingering breathes, Yabu let the hooker took off his clothes—his hanging shirt and his expensive pants—altogether. He let him getting naked himself, grinding his body closer to Yabu if possible, their naked bodies adhered to each other. The taller of the two held a breath for a second when he felt the sticky sensation of a cold condom rolled onto his penis, but his eyes never left Inoo’s face. He traced a hand on Inoo’s silky waist, while using the other one to stroke the prostitute’s cheek.  
  
“Like what you see, _Gorgeous_?” Noticing this, Inoo smirked. He leaned down and kissed the skin under Yabu’s firm jaw, sucking on it, making sure Yabu groaned in pleasure as he did so.  
  
“Why—” Instead of a groan, Yabu mumbled, his hands still roamed around every skin of Inoo that he could reach. “— _why_ do you have to wear a bundle of fake hair?”  
  
Inoo was started. The question was unexpected, and Inoo drew himself a little to look Yabu in the eye.  
  
“To make me look more attractive?” Inoo replied but didn’t really sure with what he had just said.  
  
Yabu, however, showed it clearly in his face that he wasn’t even satisfied with Inoo’s answer. He twirled the tip of Inoo’s blonde hair with two fingers, and noted how fake it really was; it was tangled and rough, felt so unnatural against his skin.  
  
“If it weren’t _me_ this night, would you still wear this wig while doing _this_?” Yabu asked boldly, his eyes found their way back to Inoo’s.  
  
Another question that Inoo truthfully hadn’t ever anticipated in his life. Never before his customers had asked him about his decision of wearing wigs, because, well, they just _don’t care_. On top of all, it was his right, his privacy, the way he protected himself from dangerous situation, as well as the way he tried to attract clients to use him, the way he made most of his money. But had he ever think about not wearing a fake wig when he work? He wondered if such time did exist…  
  
“Can I ask you to take it off?”  
  
Inoo didn’t want to lose. He didn’t want to show his weakness to his apparently-super-rich client, so he just shrugged his thought off. Besides, _it's a favor worth seventy two thousands yen, it shouldn’t be a big deal_ , Inoo had convinced himself. And so, he slanted a cocky grin and took off his wig, revealing his natural raven hair, letting every silky strands fell down onto his already pale face, expecting Yabu to criticize him.  
  
But Yabu crept a smile instead, a very _bright_ one, a smile which hid his eyes almost perfectly under his eyelids as he grew it more into a grin, showing all of his front teeth. And Inoo noticed, from such close approximity, that Yabu had a dimple when he smiled that wide, and it was kind of cute.  
  
“You look _better_ this way.” The taller guy complimented with all his honesty.  
  
The words made him dizzy that he almost, almost wanted to press his lips onto this certain client's, something that he had never _ever_ wanted to do in his life before. The view simply boiled Inoo’s blood that he wondered if he was actually blushing. _Hookers don’t blush_ , he reminded himself, but was grateful because Yabu didn’t seem to notice it. The second he dropped his wig to the floor, Yabu hugged his waist and started biting and sucking on his collarbone, leaving red hickeys here and there. The rich brunette roamed his palms on Inoo’s back and Inoo started to moan. Inoo then took advantage of this yet another getting hot situation between the two of them to direct Yabu’s fingers into his entrance.  
  
“ _Do_ it, Ko-chan, do it for _me_ ,” Inoo moaned, hot and sexually aroused on Yabu’s nose. He hitched when Yabu started entering his finger, one, two, and eventually three fingers into Inoo’s body. When Inoo’s moan started to get a bit high pitched, Yabu knew that it was the time.  
  
Still on their sitting position, on the biggest and fluffiest sofa in the penthouse’s livingroom, Yabu held Inoo’s waist as he positioned himself in between the hooker’s entrance. He let him go slowly as he entered Inoo’s body, the two of them crooned in unison for the amazing feeling of each other’s; with Yabu being too amazed that Inoo was so tight and _good_ as he swallowed him wholly.  
  
“Kei, _move_ ,” Yabu whispered huskily, almost shutting himself as he enjoyed the feeling of Inoo’s wall surrounding his private member.  
  
The hooker complied and began to grind his own body up and down, again and again, starting in a rather slow motion before going faster, faster, and _faster_. Yabu met his pace as he held his partner’s hips helping him kept steady. The sound of their skin touching and slapping with each other’s, their bones, their muscles became sore yet the sex felt so _amazing_ , and their sitting position clearly helped Yabu to touch Inoo’s sweet spot dead on repeatedly in a rather easy way. It was then becoming a bit too much—the feeling, the sensation of their skins—that they were led to their edges.  
  
“ _Ng_ aahh— _aahh_ —fuck, so good—so _fucking_ good, Ko-chan!” The raven tilted up his head and closed his eyes, his lips gaping as he touched himself, pumping his own member hard. His edge felt too overwhelming for him that he sent out shot his semen onto both his chest and Yabu’s without giving a warning.  
  
Seeing the beautiful raven cumming onto his body, Yabu just couldn’t take his eyes off of him, his heart felt warm for some reason. He ran a hand onto Inoo’s member and helped him spent, getting even more turned on when Inoo tilted down his head with his eyes half lided tiredly yet still in such full lust. The rich brunette then fastened his pace himself, bumping and thrusting his own manhood into Inoo’s entrance a bit more violently than before. It was enough to send him to come to his crescendo as well, and though he was covered with sheath, he released his seed inside Inoo’s wall.  
  
On their afterglow, Yabu stayed still inside Inoo, with the hooker resting his head on Yabu’s shoulder, and the taller male encircling his arms around Inoo’s sky-clad body. They were feeling tired but yet comfortable that none of them was willing to move. Both Yabu and Inoo steadied their breaths, and as the night sky outside the window turned into dawn, the sun peeking from the east creating a blue and reddish skyline, Yabu brushed his lips against Inoo’s neck appreciatively.  
  
“Can I use your bathroom?” The hooker mumbled but not pulling himself from Yabu’s shoulder. Instead, he tightened his arms around the brunette’s neck.  
  
“Sure,” He answered, his lips still grazing on Inoo’s soft and milky neck skin, secretly struggling hard with himself to not claim those plump lips with his own.  
  
  


  
*-* To Be Continued *-*


	3. The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> crossposted from ma_rendezvous@livejournal  
> This fanfic is nothing but a paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)

“You slept with _what_?!” Takaki almost lost his two eyeballs as he straightened up his back, disbelieved to what his childhood friend had just told him.  
  
They were in Yabu’s penthouse at nine o’clock in the morning, with the young master slash Yabu Kota had already been running two hours late for his meeting with his lawyers at Yabu Multinational Corporations Tokyo branch office. Takaki Yuya, who kindly and responsibly replaced Yabu’s absence and led such early and exhausting meeting at seven, then went straight to Yabu’s hotel to give the report to the CEO. However, he was shocked still and irritated at the same time when he arrived at the hotel, finding out that Yabu was keeping a _guy_ in his bedroom. A guy, who, moreover, was a _male_ prostitute, said Yabu himself.  
  
Of course immediately Yabu regreted his decision to tell Takaki that he met Inoo Kei the night before in Shinjuku Ni Chome. He didn’t expect Takaki to be this, well, _surprised_ , considering they had walked pass so many prostitutes—and other any types of prostitutions—in their early days back in the United States as well as the other side of the world. Maybe the lawyer was surprised because it was actually the first time Yabu had actually hired one.  
  
Or maybe, just maybe, it was for the fact that the taller didn’t even come to an important meeting because he _hired_ one. He was even still wearing Park Hyatt Hotel’s night yukata when Takaki came in—a view which was so _unusual_ , since he had known Yabu for half of his life already.  
  
“I’m _not_ going to repeat that.” Yabu said stubbornly, furrowing his eyebrows, placing his glass of water onto the dining table.  
  
“But Yabu, seriously? A _hooker_?!” Takaki bent his body towards Yabu and almost whispered to the older guy in a terrified way. His forehead was frowned and his head boiling as he tried to combine the puzzles in his head. “I—no, Dude, I can’t believe you’re doing this.”  
  
“I’m not asking you to believe anything, Takaki.” The older glared at his lawyer.  
  
Sighing, Takaki fisted his left palm on the table and tilted down his head, trying to calm his nerves down. He just couldn’t believe he was working for a rich bastard like Yabu. He couldn’t even believe with himself that he had been this rich bastard’s best friends for years. It’s been so many times that a part of him was reminding his another part that he had been wasting his time by working for Yabu Kota. But he just couldn’t let Yabu do anything alone. It felt as if he were older than Yabu himself, and he was clueless as to why. If he were cruel enough, he would have told everything about Yabu’s behavior to his father, and suggested him that he was a better CEO compared to the young master.  
  
He couldn’t, though, because this man he was facing, was ‘the’ Yabu Kota.  
  
Takaki sighed.  
  
“Anyway, Kitayama has arranged everything for your meeting with Yaotome Goro tonight.” He changed the subject as fast as a flashlight, trying not to spark another argument with his boss. “He will come with his grandson who—sooner or later—will take over the whole company, that is if they could defend their dockyards that we’re aiming.”  
  
There was a pause that felt as cold as the north pole which made Takaki shivered in chill before Yabu took his agenda and opened it. He took a pen and wrote a note in there, before breaking the ice between them with his business talk. Whenever they shifted their subjects to business, Yabu had always, _always_ become a completely different person.  
  
“I know about his grandson. I met him once in Barcelona.” Yabu tapped the base point of his pen onto his agenda. “He was a rider in the Equastrian race. Second place among professionals; fascinating.”  
  
Leaning his back onto the dinning chair’s backrest, Takaki ran his hand onto the collar of his shirt and tidied his tie up. Staring at all the foods served on the dinning table had made him lost his appetite. He noticed that Yabu had just ordered all of the breakfasts in the menu, and yet he didn’t want to think about why the older did so.  
  
It must be for the hooker sleeping in Yabu’s bed, but Takaki didn’t want to think about it.  
  
“You better not ruin this one, Yabu.” The lawyer warned, his eyes went back to Yabu’s.  
  
“… I won’t.”  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
It was the sound of two people talking outside the door that had woken Inoo up in the following morning. He streatched himself into a ball and pulled the blanket up onto his shoulders when he suddenly realized the softness of the bed that he had been sleeping on. He also noticed how silky his futon had become—which had never felt like _that_ before, considering how rusty and hard his bed had always been. Not to mention his own futon’s color which wasn’t even white. When he fully opened his eyes, though, he realized that he wasn’t in his own room. There was a very wide window across of him, displaying the endless morning skyline, unblocked with any surrounding buildings, far from any sounds of sirene or cars passing. There was also a pot of small tree on the corner of the room, and the king sized bed he was laying on, was occupied by no one but himself.  
  
He was still in Yabu’s penthouse, he noticed, and under the white blanket that covered his body, he still wore nothing at all.  
  
 _Oh, yeah, work,_ Inoo reminded himself.  
  
He then sat on the bed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. He heard the front door slammed shut, and as his eyes rested to the digital clock on the nightstand, he wondered who visited the young master at such early hour. Or maybe it was Yabu who just went to work, leaving him behind? The black haired hooker wondered in his mind. A bit curious of the situation, he got off of the bed and grabbed a boxer and a white shirt that were laid just like that in a chair next to the bedroom door, wearing them and sniffing a little, somehow noting Yabu’s smell into his lungs.  
  
He put on a pair of hotel slippers and went out of the bedroom to find Yabu sitting on a dinning chair, reading a morning newspaper.  
  
“Morning,” He greeted, stood still feets away from the dinning table. He was kind of hesitated to approach Yabu for a vague reason.  
  
Hearing his voice, the young master turned his head to him and smiled, folding back his newspaper and put it on the table.  
  
“Good morning.” Yabu greeted back. “Nice sleep?”  
  
“Yeah, slept like a log, didn’t even dream.” Inoo chuckled, a bit embarassed, rubbing his raven hair and then his eyes, not wanting to look sleepy more than he already was in front of Yabu. “I’ll just pack my things up after this and leave.”  
  
“Don’t be too hasty. Here, have some breakfast.” Yabu offered, standing up, gesturing with his hand for Inoo to come closer.  
  
The raven then walked towards the dinning table, still feeling hesitant for a reason. When he was standing next to Yabu, though, the taller male didn’t touch him nor did he attempt to touch his shoulder at all. He only opened the food covers and revealed many served breakfasts on the table—of Cinnamon Roll, Croissant, Assorted Bagels, pancakes, and fruits like apples and many more, basically foods that were only served for rich people in the morning. Inoo was amazed with the food served in front of him that he didn’t realize he was grinning to himself. He was indeed hungry after all.  
  
“I didn’t know what you like, so I kind of order everything.” Yabu said, sitting back on his chair before, taking his newspaper and continued reading it.  
  
Inoo grabbed an apple a and took a bite. He then, without warning nor feeling guilty, sat on the dinning table, a bit to Yabu’s right, while watching the rich man reading his morning news. Despite knowing that he was being inappropriate by sitting on the dinning table, Yabu kept silent and didn’t say anything, which was a little . Maybe Yabu was acting as if there were nothing happened between the two of them, the raven told himself. Inoo then took another bite of his apple before building self encouragement to start a conversation.  
  
“So,” He spoke, chewing his apple and staring down at his last night’s client. “Can I ask you something?”  
  
Yabu tilted up his head and looked at Inoo in the eyes.  
  
“Sure.”  
  
“What kind of business do you do, Ko-chan?” Inoo gulped then took another bite.  
  
“I buy companies. It’s one of my father’s business, but I’ve taken over it for some years already.” The brunette simply answered. He stared at Inoo from head to toe and noticed that the clothes that the hooker were wearing now were his yesterday’s clothes. Chuckling, Yabu’s eyes then landed on Inoo’s exposed flawless thighs crossing on the table. “There are still four _other_ chairs, Kei.”  
  
Shrugging, Inoo hopped off of the table and sat on a chair, still to Yabu’s right. He lifted his legs and crossed them, sitting Indian style, not giving a damn that he was actually on a chair.  
  
“What kind of companies?”  
  
Yabu hummed as if thinking, before he answered, “Some financially troubled companies.”  
  
Shaping an ‘o’ with his mouth, Inoo took a glass and poured water into it. He drunk it down before grabbing a piece of the cinnamon roll.  
  
“What do you do with those financially troubled companies?”  
  
“I resell them. But not wholly.” Yabu explained, watching Inoo eating up his cinnamon roll. “I split them and sell the pieces with higher values.”  
  
“Ouch, damn,” Inoo’s forehead furrowed, but grimanced anyway. “Isn’t that like stealing a car and selling its spare parts separatedly?”  
  
“Sort of. But it’s _legitimate_.”  
  
“That is plain capitalism! Your family brings out more poor people to the world! Imagine the future poverty that you’ll create after buying a company.” Inoo whined. He finished his sweet roll at the same time. _I wonder how rich you are actually_ , Inoo mumbled to himself. “But doing that alone, you must be _really_ smart, yeah?”  
  
“I’m not alone. I have lawyers.” Yabu chuckled and shook his head, yet not answering Inoo any further.  
  
Nodding somewhat understandingly, Inoo took his glass and drank his water again. After a thirty seconds pause that seemed like forever, with the both of them busying themselves with anything that was served in front of them, Inoo encouraged himself to break the silence.  
  
“Ko-chan,” He called.  
  
“What is with this ‘Ko-chan’ thing, seriously?” Despite his objection, Yabu smiled bemusedly as he tilted up his head again to look at Inoo in the eye. It was meant as a joke, of course, so he slanted his lips to one side and saw how Inoo reacted to it.  
  
“That’s a cute nick name!” The raven pouted in response, raising his voice just a little. “You should be grateful that someone is _willingly_ calling you that. Nobody has ever called you that, am I right?”  
  
“Right.” The taller chuckled. “So, what is it?”  
  
The pout in Inoo’s face changed into grin as he said, “Can I use your bathtub before I go?”  
  
Yabu lifted one of his eyebrows hearing such question. “Didn’t you use it last night?”  
  
“I _didn’t_ ,” Inoo shook his head, his brown orbs fixed to Yabu’s darker ones. “I was kind of tired so I just used the shower. But your bathtub—it’s made of _marble_! I don’t want to have any regret in my life—I would if I _didn’t_ do bubble-bath in marble bathtubs—that’s why.”  
  
The young master almost laughed to Inoo’s innocent plea, but to respect the raven, he held his stomach and chuckled lightly instead. He then nodded and leaned his back to his chair’s backrest, watching as Inoo leaped off of his own chair and happily skipped his feet to the bathroom’s direction.  
  


  
*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
As he prepared to go to work, Yabu got a phone call from one of his most trusted lawyers, Kitayama Hiromitsu. He plugged his earphones to his earlobes then, and after pressing his thumb onto the green answer button, he focused back on his reflection in the mirror, buttoning the snaps of his white shirt from the most bottom up to the toppest. He took his Dunhill’s Navy Tweenie Devil Tie and was about to wrap it around his neck when Kitayama greeted good morning from the other side of the phone. Yabu asked whether something was happening while trying to do his tie.  
  
 _“Just want to tell you that your dinner will be at_ Aronia de Takazawa _. Everything is set already, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”_ Kitayama explained. _“Except that you better not go alone. I suggest you to have someone to come with you, since Yaotome-san won’t come alone himself.”_  
  
“But he’s not going to come with his wife. It’s just his grandson who is trained to take over the industries. I heard that from Takaki already. It shouldn’t be a big deal.”  
  
 _“It will if it’s_ you _, Yabu.”_ Kitayama said back as-a-matter-of-factly. _“That’s why if you come with a date, at least the atmosphere would keep the night pleasant. Besides, I’ve reserved for four. What if I look for a girl for you? I know lots of nice girls in Tokyo that can give you company.”_  
  
Yabu was obviously annoyed by Kitayama’s advice. In fact, he was considerably annoyed by all his lawyers taxing him to do this and that—he didn’t even like to listen to his own father’s command. He was sure he could handle their plan with Yaotome Industries well himself, but what both Takaki and Kitayama were doing to him was just burdening him with too much demands. It was _him_ who ran this corporate raid, and not the two of them, so they shouldn’t have had the right to tell him what he’s supposed to do.  
  
The young master’s calm bearing cracked after he listened to what Kitayama had just said. His forehead was frowed and his sharp eyebrows furrowed, and he stopped doing his tie altogether.  
  
Nevertheless, he was about to snap at Kitayama when, at the same time, Inoo, wearing the hotel’s trademark bathrobe, came out of the bathroom and walked towards him, humming the refrain of _Darling_ happily to the air. His black hair was all wet and his face looked paler, but lips redder than before due to the effect of the warm water, probably. Inoo was stroking his hair with a towel as an attempt to dry it, as he stood next to Yabu. The smaller male then took a glance at the rich, who had been staring at him since God knows when, holding his phone in a hand, perhaps startled.  
  
Yabu immediately hang up on Kitayama and took his earphones off of his ears, completely ignoring Kitayama’s roar from miles away.  
  
Inoo noticed that Yabu’s tie hadn’t done right yet, so he turned the older by the shoulders to face him a bit forcefully, and started doing his expensive tie in a rather professional way.  
  
“Are you suck with making tie or something?” The raven half insulted, but was plainly joking to Yabu.  
  
The taller could only stare down at Inoo without saying anything. His mind ran back to the night before when they had a rather hot intercourse, and he remembered everything, every detail of it, as crystal clear as the sky; Inoo’s face when he was aroused, his moan, the way he tilted up his head, his neck, how beautiful he had been that Yabu was left speechless. He then even laid his eyes to Inoo’s neck just to check whether the smaller male still had red hickeys in there. Surprisingly, Yabu’s bites were still there, though fading and not as red as last night. Then he recalled what Kitayama said about his reservation in Aronia de Takazawa.  
  
Watching Inoo in such close proximity gave him an idea.  
  
As a matter of fact, a rather _mad_ idea.  
  
“Kei,”  
  
“Yeah?” Inoo answered, but not tilting his head to see Yabu in the face.  
  
“I have a business proposition for you.” Yabu stated, his tone that of a businessman ready to explaine business opportunities. With that, Inoo looked up until his eyes met Yabu’s, staring at the taller in curiousity. Yabu himself was so sure of what he’s about to say, so confidently, he continued, “Will you consider to stay with me until Sunday?”  
  
Inoo slowly gaped his mouth, disbelieved. He stopped doing Yabu’s tie, but still holding it tight as if it were his rope of life and death.  
  
“To stay here? By Sunday? _Seriously_?”  
  
“I will need you to give me company while doing my business this whole week. That will be your main _job desc_.” Yabu nodded. “It will be seven days and six nights in total. Of course I will pay you better.”  
  
Hearing the proposition made Inoo overwhelmed. Of course he wanted to stay, it wasn’t like he could stay in a high-end society forever, anyway. Besides, Yabu was very kind to him, not treating him like a whore but a mere human being, not ditching him to the streets without a good shower after an amazing sex. Last night he had also got paid for his promised seventy two thousands, and the next morning he served everything in the menu for breakfast. But Inoo doubted himself. His feeling told him that something bad would happen if he took this opportunity, but his brain told him that if he could get enough money, then he could even start a collage that he had been dreaming of.  
  
Inoo made a long pause as his heart struggled with his brain. But he didn’t want to lose, so he smirked coyly to Yabu, wishing the older would just back off after the bargain.  
  
 _Let’s see how much he could afford me first,_ Inoo dared himself.  
  
“Well, you know it’s gonna be pretty costy, right, _Mr. Gorgeous_?”  
  
“Right.” Yabu chuckled. “Let’s count it down. But don’t be too stiff on me.”  
  
“A full week, twenty four hours, days and nights.” Inoo pretended to be thinking. After a moment, he said, “Seven hundred thousands.”  
  
“Kei, that’s crazy! Seventy two thousands times six is just four hundred thirty two thousands.”  
  
“But you’re asking for a week, days counted as well, no?”  
  
Clicking his tongue in complete amusement, Yabu offered, “Five hundreds and fifty thousands.”  
  
“ _Six_ hundred thousands.”  
  
“Deal.”  
  
Upon hearing the price deal, Inoo’s jaw almost literally dropped to the floor because of the fact that he opened his mouth as wide as the saucers. He had never, ever, ever in his life before, making a deal as much as he just did with Yabu Kota. Six hundred thousands and in yen, and he could get it within a week just by staying and serving Yabu Kota’s need. What an easy money! He imagined such huge amount of money and whatever he could do with that. He could finance at least a semester of collage, he could live in his own apartment by himself, and with the spare money he could even buy a new car with yellow placard. The rest of it, well, he would just have fun with it—maybe going overseas or just retired as a hooker or something—and nobody’s gonna get hurt.  
  
The raven male’s brain unquestionably won the fight, and again, the warn from the heart was ignored.  
  
“ _Holy shit_!!” Inoo exclaimed, almost jumping excitedly and bumping on Yabu’s body. The raven bursted out laughing in an overwhelming happiness.  
  
“So, is that a yes?”  
  
“Yes! Of course! Oh, Ko-chan, I’ll treat you so good _you_ ’ll never want to let me go!” Inoo joked around, still high in his fantasy of holding so much easy money in his hands. He then finished doing Yabu’s tie before patting it, feeling satisfied for some reasons, grinning from ear to ear.  
  
“Thank you, but it’s _only_ for a week. And actually, I have a condition.” Yabu said, however, with a serious tone. He reached for his jet black Emporio Armani suits and put it on. “Tonight we’ll have dinner with the higher-ups of a company, so I need you to dress _properly_.”  
  
“What do you mean ‘properly’? Am I not ‘proper’ enough?” Inoo immediately lost all of his grin and knitted his eyebrows.  
  
“No. Yes—no, I mean—just wear something… _conservative_ , okay?” Yabu then fished his wallet out of his pants back pocket, taking out some banknotes and handing them to Inoo’s hands. “Not sexy, but appropirate. And elegant.”  
  
“You mean ‘boring’?”  
  
Yabu didn’t answer. After giving money to Inoo to buy new sets of clothings, Yabu then walked out of the bedroom towards the front door, with the raven haired hooker trailing behind him. The tall brunette approaced his study desk and took his leather case that was laid on the table, then he walked towards the front door, with Inoo still trailing behind him like a gorged cat. Yabu didn’t know why Inoo was doing that, but he didn’t mind. It was somehow funny having someone dangling after him to the front foor before he goes to work, so he didn’t bother to question why.  
  
“Meet me in the lobby at six, okay?” When they got into the most front part of the penthouse, Yabu took his expensive leather shoes and sat on a chair, before putting them onto his feet. When he looked up, he found Inoo pouting, with his two hands entangled behind his back.  
  
“You’re not gonna pick me up here?”  
  
Surprised by Inoo’s question, Yabu chuckled and stood up, letting Inoo fixing any wrinkle in his suits. He ended up just patting the collar anyway. When the raven was done with it, Yabu laid and brushed his fingers onto the skin just under Inoo’s jawline, brushing it gently, feeling his skin again the softness of Inoo’s, adoring its pale color. His heart’s race increased but maybe, just maybe, his mind shut it down so that he didn’t even notice.  
  
“It’s for _business_ , not a _date_.” He reminded the smaller male, drawing his hand off of him in a rejecting way, which somehow felt dejecting to himself. Shrugging it off nonetheless, Yabu then walked towards the front door and opened it, stopping right in the threshold just to turn around and said to Inoo, “And remember to _never_ pick up the hotel phone, okay?”  
  
  
  
  
  
Once Yabu left the penthouse, Inoo’s knees felt weak that he could barely stand up straight. Six hundred thousands yen and the numbers kept flying above his head like stars, with Yabu’s voice when they made the deal kept on resonating inside his brain. He bursted out laughing, hopping around the wide space of the living room, jumping on the sofas, singing out loud a happy song as if he had gone crazy. He danced and shouted their one week deal, _“six hundred thousands!”_ to the air as if the wall of the penthouse could actually hear him. Lucky it was only him in the entire soundproofed hotel room. But even if he were in public, he just wouldn’t care.  
  
And he suddenly remembered about Tegoshi, his roommate, the guy who had dragged him into this beautiful mess. Since the deal was his first and only thing that made him feel a little grateful of becoming a hooker, he needed to tell Tegoshi about everything.  
  
Inoo rushed to the bedroom to get his phone out of his jeans pocket. He then threw himself onto the king sized fluffy bed while dialing Tegoshi’s phone, waiting impatiently the ringing sound to stop and for Tegoshi to pick it up. Once Inoo heard Tegoshi’s voice from the other side of the phone, without greeting hello, Inoo shouted like a child who just won a golden ticket.  
  
 _“Kei-chan?! What the hell, you made me dizzy!”_ Tegoshi groaned. His voice sounded like he just woke up from a hangover.  
  
Pouting, Inoo whined, “You really should stop doing drugs or you’re gonna die young, Tegoshi.”  
  
 _“Oh, shut up! I’ll just fucking beat the Shinigami before he can fucking take my soul away.”_  
  
“Whatever.” Inoo rolled his eyes. Tegoshi was obviously still high. “Listen, you remember the purple Bumblebee from last night?”  
  
 _“Yeah, the Chevrollet Camaro, right. What’s up with that?”_  
  
“You won’t believe it. The guy on the steer, he’s hiring me for a fucking whole week! And you won’t believe how much he’s gonna pay me!” Inoo paused for a moment and waited for any response from Tegoshi. Upon hearing nothing, Inoo took it as a sign to continue. “Six hundred thousands!”  
  
 _“…BULLSHIT!!”_  
  
“I know, right! And that excludes money to buy proper clothes—and you know what ‘proper clothes’ means. And last night he gave me seventy two thousands for a night stay!”  
  
 _“Is he twisted? Does he have some kind of sexual disorder or something?”_  
  
“No. He’s actually good looking,” _And very gentle, but probably crazy,_ Inoo added to himself, but not saying it out loud. He stared at the endless sky outside the bedroom’s wide window and saw two crows passing, ended up daydreaming all of a sudden.  
  
 _“Holy shit, Kei-chan!”_ Tegoshi’s voice, however, brought him back to real life. _“I’m fucking stressed out right now, Baby, I gave that guy to you! I can’t believe it, you lucky amateur cock sucker!”_  
  
Inoo laughed hearing Tegoshi’s insult. The insult was meant as a joke, Inoo knew it, but he also knew that deep inside, he didn’t want to be called that way. His laughter faded away and he sighed, trying not to mind whatever Tegoshi had said to him. He also didn’t want to make their situation more bitter than it had already been.  
  
“Yeah, listen. I’m gonna leave the seventy two thousands in the lobby. It’s for our apartment rent. Pick it up by afternoon, okay?”  
  
 _“Where?”_  
  
“Park Hyatt Hotel. The lobby’s on the 40th floor, so just go straight there.” Inoo listened as Tegoshi made a note while mumbling the hotel name. When he thought Tegoshi had been noting it correctly, he sat up straight and asked, “And do you know where I can get ‘proper clothes’ around here?”  
  
 _“Shinjuku is a such a no-no, Baby. Try Ginza.”_  
  
Inoo couldn’t actually see Tegoshi’s face, but he knew—he just somehow _knew_ —that at the moment, Tegoshi was smirking his overly annoying devilish trademark smirk inside their shared apartment.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
At twelve in the afternoon, Tamamori Yuta, the young, full of achievement, raven haired manager of the Park Hyatt Hotel, was standing near the reception desk, talking with a wide, friendly smile on his face to a couple of elderly in the hotel lobby. He was humbly expressing his gratitude towards the elder couple who just complimented how wonderful the hotel was even after more than twenty years of service. Tamamori explained that they were always striving for perfect service and would never have the heart to disappoint all of their customers, and the elderly couple nodded in agreement.  
  
They were still talking about many developments of the hotel when suddenly someone who came out of the elevator caught Tamamori’s attention.  
  
The guy, who apparently walked towards the reception desk but not giving a damn about the hotel manager's presence there, was wearing an all ripped all over jeans, showing the pale color of his skin, the highest rip almost showing his crotch in a rather inappropriate way, and also a deep black v-neck t-shirt. His boots made a squaking sound as he walked, and Yuta watched it in aghast as the guy took a brown envelope out of his jeans back pocket and gave it to a female receptionist.  
  
Yuta actually didn’t remember their hotel actually had someone like that as their customer. And supposedly, none of the customers face had ever escaped from the tall manager's thorough monitor. He needed to ask who the guy was before a not-so-pleasant issue and other misunderstandings could blossom inside and outside the hotel's encompass. But he couldn’t do anything at the moment, though, because, well, he couldn’t just excuse himself from the two elderly that he was having high-end conversation with.  
  
Therefore, while dealing with the two elderly in front of him, Yuta pricked up his ears and studied the guy in silence.  
  
“I leave this for Tegoshi Yuya. He’s gonna pick it up this afternoon.” The pale, somehow inappropriate in clothing as well as behavior, but _really pretty_ guy, said to the receptionist.  
  
“Understood, Sir.” The receptionist received the enveloped and smiled politely.  
  
“And don’t dare you open it.” The raven haired guy treatened, but smirked seductively as he muched his bubble gum. He then took his leave, going back to the direction of the elevator and left the lobby. He stood before the elevator’s door as he waited for it to open, completely oblivious to—or perhaps purposefully ignored—some curious eyes that were staring at him from head to toe.  
  
The manager took a chance to approached the reception desk as the elderly couple walked away to have lunch in the hotel restaurant. He bent his body a little towards the receptionist that had talked to the pretty guy in ripped all over jeans, and whispered to her gently so that nobody would hear their conversation.  
  
“Did you know who _he_ is?”  
  
“ _No_ , Sir.” The receptionist shook her head.  
  
Sighing, Tamamori Yuta stood up straight and suspiciously stared at Inoo Kei from across the lobby, watching closely as the hooker entered the elevator by himself.


	4. Rejection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Repost from ma_rendezvous@livejournal (16th July 2015)  
> In my livejournal I split the chapters into two parts, that's why here it's just too long.

Inoo strolled around the streets of Ginza with a wide grin on his face. The raven had actually been passing Ginza for hundreds of times in his life already, everytime he took the Ginza or Marunouchi subway line, but had never really stopped in its station, not to mention walking around the district. Since long ago, Inoo had acknowledged that the district is mostly occupied by lots of high-end outlets of famous designers all around the world, and the commodities sold there are plainly too expensive for him to reach, he thought. But today, in such a rare occasion where he felt as if he’s holding the world in his hands, the slender raven haired guy actually had cash to buy some clothes in this district. Of course he couldn’t be happier. He was feeling a little _greedy_ , but to hell with it.  
  
There were lots of prestigious clothings on display in every corner of the main street as Inoo window shopped. Everytime he found an interesting Men’s Clothing store, he would stop in front of its display and study the style. Whenever other store’s display attracted his attention, he would stop again, admiring the garments, watching his own reflection in the window and grinning even wider, imagining himself wearing them, imagining himself feeling the softness and its first rate materials against his skin, imagining himself being equal with people from Yabu’s class…  
  
…imagining _Ko-chan_ smiling sweetly to him like he did the night before.  
  
And Inoo’s heart skipped a beat.  
  
He stood still, his smile faded away slowly as the thought of Yabu smiling entered his mind like a thunder in a sunny day. His heart suddenly felt uncomfortable, and he could somehow see his face turned a shade redder than usual. He clenched the hem of his v-neck as he intensely stared at his own reflection through the display window, questioning how and why he was looking sad and mesmeric.  
  
The hooker clicked his tongue and shrugged his thought. He reminded himself that Yabu was his client, his customer, his _employer_ , and that of course there would and should be no other kind of relationship things between them, and thus their contract would end by the end of the week. Not noticing that he was being the center of attention of other passers-by, Inoo approached the door of an exclusive Men’s Clothing boutique.  
  
Still chewing on his bubble gum, Inoo stepped into the store, but only to be stared cynically from head to toe by the shop keepers.  
  
At first Inoo didn’t mind it—hell, he could barely mind people acting like that towards him because they were just _too_ many. But the thing that happened soon after was just something else, something Inoo had never expected. He was standing in front of a manequin, watching and touching a set of dark blue suits on display, trying to find the price tag but didn’t find any, when a female shop keeper approached him and asked him what was he looking for.  
  
Indeed, not what she could do to him but what Inoo was looking for.  
  
“I’m looking for a—well, something _conservative_. Suits, maybe?” Inoo tilted down his head and stared at the female shop keeper, a girl around Inoo’s shoulder with long, brown silky hair, wearing too much make up that her eyes looked as if they were about to fall.  
  
That was when he realized that the she threw to him was not just a cynical stare. It was a downgrading kind of stare, a stare which you might only throw to cockroaches or flies or any dirty little thing that you dislike or are allergic to. She held her chin up and didn’t even smile to Inoo irritatingly.  
  
_What a smug little bitch._  
  
Inoo, though, still kindly elated his heart and tried to shrug it off.  
  
“This one’s kinda nice, I like the color. How much is this?” Although trying to encourage himself, Inoo, who was starting to loose a little of his self esteem, pointed to the manequin in front of him. He chewed his gum again to calm himself down.  
  
“It is _very_ expensive, Sir.” The clerk answered, and Inoo started to feel uncomfortable.  
  
“I already know that, but I’ve got some bucks to spend, that’s why I asked you _how much_ is this suits.” Inoo was losing his temper, but he tried hard no to let any dirty languages slip out of his mouth.  
  
Sadly, the clerk felt threatened by his words. She wandered her eyes and found the store’s customer glancing towards the two of them. So, instead of serving him like she’s supposed to do—and _paid_ to do, she said to Inoo’s face, “I am sorry, Sir, but, I think we don’t have _anything_ for you. And _maybe_ , you’re in the _wrong_ store in the first place. Therefore, for the sake of our customers, Sir, please _leave_.”  
  
The world felt as if it crumbled onto Inoo’s body. The hooker stared at the clerk for a moment before roaming his eyes to every corners of the store. There were not many customers in there, and yet most of the existing customers were staring at him just the way as this clerk did. Inoo felt his throat tightened and no words were able to spil out of his lips. He was _mad_ , of course he was, for people in this store had just treat him indifferently.  
  
Just because he came to Ginza _dressing_ like a Shinjuku Ni Chome prostitute, doesn’t mean he has to be treaten like that in a fucking clothing store, right? Well, he is a prostitute indeed, once again, a damned _male_ whore, but what’s wrong with a prostitute trying to look for a proper, a little expensive kind of outfit? It shouldn’t be a sin; besides, these people aren’t God.  
  
With angers folding up in his chest that were ready to burst, Inoo took heavy steps towards the exit door. Once he was outside, he spit his bubble gum to its terrace floor, not minding evey eyes that glancing surprisedly by his behavior. He put his hands into his ripped jeans’ pocket and walked back towards the station, going back to the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku and hoping he could find peaceful in the solitary of Yabu’s penthouse, or just to be able to see Yabu soon, and cry in his arms.  
  
As if he could do that to Yabu.  
  
  
  
  
Fortune, however, seemed like nothing but a myth for Inoo Kei at the moment. It felt as if Inoo’s peaceful mind should wait quite longer, because once he entered the Park first floor’s lobby, he was intercepted by a tall, kind of good looking, black haired man, wearing suits. They made eye contact, and the both of them stood still while staring suspiciously to each other. But Inoo tried to ignore him. He had enough for a week, so he didn’t want to do other ‘part time’ job, thinking it would be a huge blow of betrayal to Yabu’s contract. The raven then went straight to the elevator. But the tall and lean male suddenly stood next to him, and followed him into the hoist.  
  
And the worst part was that the taller raven’s presence somehow chilled Inoo’s spine. The hooker pretended as if it was nothing and pressed the 50th button. But the man stood next to him bowed politely and pressed the 40th floor button; the floor to the hotel’s lobby.  
  
The taller raven coughed a little, forcing an eye contact with Inoo. When their eyes met again, he started to speak. “Excuse my imprudence, Sir, but let me introduce myself. I am Tamamori Yuta, and I’m the manager of the Park Hyatt. Are you a guest, Sir?”  
  
“I—I’m with a _friend_.” Inoo answered somehow nervously.  
  
“A friend.” Yuta nodded. “And who would it be?”  
  
Inoo blinked.  
  
“Yabu Kota.”  
  
Truth to be told, Inoo had expected for this Tamamori guy to back off after he mentioned Yabu’s name, just like everyone else. But instead, the hotel manager pushed Inoo’s back out of the blue, when the elevator made a ding sound and stopped in the 40th floor. It was not Inoo’s destined floor, so he reacted and protested when with his strength, Yuta forced him out of the elevator.  
  
“W—what? _Now_ what?!” Inoo half yelled, but loud enough to get all eyes in the lobby attracted to him over again.  
  
“If you _wouldn’t_ mind, please come with me to the office for a moment.” Yuta said with a gentle voice, still as polite as possible.  
  
Upon hearing what the manager had just said to him, Inoo’s anger rebuilt itself in his chest and his throat. He felt his lungs tightened and his breath hitched. He was having a very bad day, and had just rejected by a shop just because he was dressing a little improperly. Now he was led to the office of the Park Hyatt hotel without a reason. And though this had nothing to do with Yabu Kota, he couldn’t blame the young master in his mind even more.  
  
“What _the fuck_ is wrong with you, _People_?!!” Inoo still protested, irritatedly, furiously, pragmatically addressing everyone in the lobby or even all rich people in the world, who had judged him and threatened him poorly because of how he looked. His eyes hurt from holding back a flood of tears, but he had no more energy to run away from the hotel manager.  
  


 

*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
  
“May I have your name, Sir?”  
  
“I’m fine with whatever you want to call me.” Inoo glared coldy at the hotel manager. He was still angry after all that had happened the very day, and he thought that this damned hotel manager called Tamamori Yuta was just making it worse.  
  
“I am not one to play around,” Surprisingly, Yuta glared back.  
  
“Kei.” Sighing and rolling his eyes, Inoo repeated, “It’s Kei.”  
  
“Alright, Kei-san.” Yuta, who had previously been standing some feets away in front of Inoo, then stood before the manager’s desk, leaning the lower part of his back onto the fine wood. “I’m afraid to tell you this, but things that _might_ happen in other hotel, do _not_ happen here in the Park Hyatt. Nevertheless, Yabu-sama is our very… _special_ customer, and we would like to think about our special customers as… _a friend_.”  
  
As the manager explained, his eyes were still on Inoo’s, watching closely this young man with a very pale skin, but avoiding looking at the displayed surface under his ripped jeans.  
  
“And as a special customer, we would expect for Yabu-sama to sign in any additional guest, but as a friend, we’d be willingly turning a blind eye. Now, I’m assuming that _you_ are…”  
  
At this point, Inoo began to understand that he might bring nuisance to Yabu’s business if he revealed that he was his prostitute for the week. And based on the visage of his eyes, Yuta was serious with his intention. The thought made Inoo more uneasy than angry, and he felt his nape becoming cold for no reasons. In result, Inoo was just silent and not saying anything until Yuta broke the ice himself.  
  
“A _relative_ … of Yabu-sama?”  
  
Without thinking, Inoo nodded.  
  
Yuta then nodded in return.  
  
“I thought so.” The manager said. “And you must be _his_ …”  
  
Another pause was built because Inoo felt his tongue tied. He couldn’t pretend to be Yabu’s brother, because nothing in both of their figures looked kind of similar; not their eyebrows, not even their jawlines. Their skin tones were very different, and Yabu actually had a ginger head—if that weren’t dyed. The only thing that Inoo could think about was pretending to be as far as a relative as possible.  
  
“ _Cousin_?” The hooker finally answered, hesitated in process.  
  
“I understood.” Yuta nodded nodded over again, as if it were the most obvious situation in the whole world. “Well, as a manager, naturally, when Yabu-sama isn’t in his room, I _wouldn’t_ want to see you here… again. But since I assume you don’t have other uncles here and we _understand_ each other, I suggest you to dress a bit more _properly_ —”  
  
“You know what?” Inoo cut Yuta mid-sentence frustratedly. He almost hopped off of his chair and stood up right in front of the raven hotel manager, after loosing his mind hearing the cursed word out of Yuta’s mouth.  
  
The hooker was starting to feel tired of the word ‘proper’, so he snapped.  
  
“ _That_ was what I was _trying_ to do. I fucking _wanted_ to dress _properly_ for a fucking dinner tonight, but just _nobody_ wanted to help me!” He then fished some bills out of his pocket and shoved them forcefully onto Yuta’s chest, as his eyes started twitching and he felt water began blurring his both vision. “Now I don’t know _what_ I should do with this fucking _money_ , so just—”  
  
Of course, he was nobody in this kind of world. His thought about being able to stand in the same floor with Yabu was probably a little too naïve—hell, Yabu was a businessman, while he was merely a hooker. Yabu was most likely one of the richest man in the world, while he himself had been strolling on the streets of red districts just so that he wouldn’t be kicked out of his shared apartment.  
  
_This isn’t a place for you, Kei, goddamn it. Just who do you think you are._  
  
The broken hearted Inoo didn’t want Yuta to see him cry, so he quickly backed away and lowered his head, hiding all of his emotions inside his chest.  
  
However, he was about to leave the room when suddenly Yuta took his left hand. Surprised, Inoo’s eyes grew wider, and he could only watched it as Yuta gently set the money back onto his palm. Confused as to what Yuta was up to, Inoo tilted up his head and stared at the taller male in the eye, but still saw no emotion whatsoever in the hotel manager’s face. Somehow, Inoo ended up clenching on the money that Yabu had given him.  
  
Yuta then spinned half of his upper body to his right side, taking the wireless telephone on his desk, before calling someone. Seeing this, Inoo’s eyes couldn’t grow even wider, and his heart beated panickedly fast.  
  
“Now _what_ , you’re calling the _police_?”  
  
“Men’s clothing? To Yamada Ryosuke, please.” Yuta took a glance at Inoo before throwing his gaze to the huge window on his left. “Yes, hello, Yamada-san. This is Tamamori Yuta from the Park Hyatt Shinjuku. I’d like to send someone over. He’s a _special_ guest. A _cousin_ of a very special guest.” Obviously, Yuta was emphasizing who he was talking about. “His name is… _Kei_.”  
  
The mentioned male stoned still and was utterly speechless, watching all of this in complete silence. He stared at Yuta in disbelief, didn’t even mind about the fact that the taller male didn’t lay his eyes back to him. His heart felt relieved, and the heavy stones that fell onto his shoulders were falling. Inoo couldn’t help but to creep a relieved smile.  
  


 

*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
All lamps were dimmed and everybody in the meeting room was watching in silence. The projector was showing a short video about the massive dockyards in Miyagi of Yaotome Industries. The dockyards had been there for at least fourty years already, built and developed by its president, Yaotome Goro, literally from zero to hero. As ones of the biggest dockyards in Japan, the dockyards that were owned by Yaotome Industries had been the base for many massive vessels and voyage charters in the whole Tohoku region, having giant ships anchored there, starting from the coastal tanker size up to VLCC type. The industries also provided shipyard for the Japanese navy based in Tohoku. During its fourty years of running, the dockyar of Yaotome Industries had gone through lots of difficulties, but by the end of 20th century up to early 21st, eventually it had come through its golden age.  
  
However, the Yaotome Industries was slowly having problems after the great and shocking earthquake in 2011 that briefly brought its dockyard into disarray. They had their vessels stuck far in the mainland, in the middle of what was supposed to be civil residents, meanwhile the dockyard itself was left in a total mess. The Yaotome Industries had spent lots of money on bringing it back on track. It was a successful process nonetheless, since the dockyards had already been running again short after the earthquake—for the sake of the earthquake and tsunami victims, Yaotome Goro had stated—but upon paying off of all of their debts, the industries began to have other financial problems.  
  
It was until the projector showing the profile of Yaotome family and mentioning the Yaotome’s third generation, Hikaru, when suddenly someone interrupted the meeting and whispered something in Kitayama’s ear. The sudden news, however, changed Kitayama’s expression all of a sudden. The lawyer then stood up and switched on the lamps, making all curious eyes darted towards his direction. He looked mad and furious at the same time, and without saying anything, he pointed his hand to the one whispering to his ear earlier. The poor employee then got all of the attention in the room, including from the CEO, Yabu Kota.  
  
The guy was probably cold-sweating, Yabu noticed.  
  
In his short presentation, the employee told Yabu and all of his lawyers and secretaries in the meeting room that Yaotome Industries is planning to sign a contract with the central governement for a total 400 million US dollars to build yet another navy base in Tohoku region.  
  
Upon hearing this, Kitayama rubbed his face with his palm as he tried to calm himself down. But he couldn’t, because it just wasn’t his nature. Therefore he approaced the employee and shouted in a infuriated way, “You gave us false information about Yaotome Industries not having anything in their hand right now?!”  
  
“I thought it was none, Sir.”  
  
“You _thought_! Did you even conduct any research about that? Does small research kill you?! How many hours do you think we’ve been _spending_ for this project?! A _thousand_!” With his eyes opened wide, Kitayama raised his voice, punching the employee’s shoulder but not in a way that would hurt him phisically.  
  
“Kitayama, calm down.” Takaki coldly ordered Kitayama, writing a note in his agenda and not looking at the said man even for a glance.  
  
“Maybe with this contract, we can raise the stock number for this industries and we can sell it much higher, right?” A secretary sat next to Takaki suggested.  
  
“Shut up, you know _shit_!” Kitayama shouted, loosing his language altogether.  
  
“We—we can still back away from this, Sir.” The employee talked to Yabu directly, but the leader of the company refused to say anything.  
  
Instead, it was Kitayama who, again, furiously spoke, “ _Nobody_ ’s walking away from all of this! We don’t even get enough sleep for these fucking dockyards, you want these papers to burn or something?!”  
  
“I think it’s okay to at least postpone the project and think more about the provitable chance—” The secretary tried to suggest his opinion, but was cut mid-sentence by Kitayama as fast.  
  
“Forget about backing away! We’re not backing away from anything!”  
  
“Can you just _shut up_?!” With a loud voice, Takaki roared, silencing every debate going on in the meeting room, including Kitayama’s furiosity. It seemed like Takaki was the only one who noticed something off with Yabu’s expression, and he knew the debate between these lawyers wouldn’t enlighten the situation.  
  
Yabu, who had been standing still the entire time, on the other side, was becoming aware of the fact that Yaotome Goro did not want to let go of his company, at least not that easy. Technically, the dockyards had been Yaotome’s life for almost half century and had become a part of the prefecture’s history, so it felt plainly _too_ evil to tear it apart. Yabu was almost, _almost_ feeling sympathetic towards Yaotome Goro as well as this whole situation. But this was his job, it was what his father had assigned him to do, the reason why he was sent to Japan. As much as he felt bad and didn’t want to do it, he didn’t have choice left in his hand.  
  
He _had_ , actually. He just chose to ignore its existence and pretend as if there were none.  
  
So, the young master started making himself thinking more like his father; of how to empower Yaotome Industries with his hands, how to make more money out of the dockyards in this situation, how to make Yaotome Goro surrender and resignedly hand his industries to Yabu. He looked for any solution to win over the dockyards even if it meant he had to dig his own hands into the muds.  
  
This was just business.  
  
And _nothing_ in business was clean.  
  
“Do we have connection to anyone in the parliament?” The CEO finally spoke.  
  
“Yeah, I think so.” Takaki opened another page of his note and nodded. “Ohno Satoshi-san.”  
  
“Contact Ohno-san.” Yabu commanded, noding, glaring sharply at Kitayama for some reason, but still, his face showed no expression. “I don’t want to know how, just _find_ him. It’s impossible to contract a company without looking at any consideration and appraisal, and _that’s_ what we’re going to do.” He said pragmatically, walking towards his chair and took his bag, before heading to the exit door. “I’m _not_ paying you to get mad, Kitayama. In fact, I’m paying all of you to get rid of my _worries_. Send the report to me, I’ll be going to see Yaotome-san now.”  
  
Takaki could only stare at the older without saying a word from across the room, watching as the tall brunette opened the door just to be stopped by Kitayama, who suddenly asked the young master who he’s gonna go to the dinner with. The older lawyer was answered only with a smile. Takaki knew that kind of Yabu’s smile; the smile that seemed as if he were _looking down_ on people. It’s an unreadable smile that Takaki himself couldn’t read despite many years of their friendship. The smile was thrown at Kitayama as he finally said he’s that going with someone Kitayama didn’t even know—and he emphasized clearly that the lawyer shouldn’t asked further about it, since it wasn’t his authority. Takaki, on the other hand, sat still on the table, his eyes still on Yabu as the taller left the room.  
  
Somehow, without his childhood friend mentioned a name, Takaki could guess.  


 

  
*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
It was already past six in the evening and the summer sky was still bright and blue when Yabu Kota, with a private driver for him provided by the hotel service, arrived in front of the Park triplet building. He got off of the car and entered the building, going straight to the elevator. The dinner actually started at seven, so he wasn’t in a hurry. He entered the elevator and pushed the 40th button, somehow believed that he would see Inoo in the lobby.  
  
As the hoist lifted him up to the hotel lobby, Yabu kept thinking about Yaotome Industries’ misfortune. Their strongest sector was their massive dockyards in Sendai, but it was all destroyed by the earthquake and washed away by the tsunami around six years earlier. However, despite all of the great loss during this time, Yaotome Goro had fixed almost everything, rebuilding the ruins of his dockyars while at the same time helping families in most parts of Miyagi who had gotten the impact of the disaster to stand up again. The noxiousness was massive in many sector of Yaotome Industries, but though they were healing, six years after the earthquake didn’t stabilize their finance. Still, Yaotome families had been regularly donoring a part of their income to charity, and thanks to Yaotome family’s broad-mindedness, they were still the jewel of Tohoku region.  
  
Yabu had read all of their files and couldn’t help but to compare it with his family. Of course they were much, _much_ more whealty than the Yaotomes. They’ve survived the World Tread Center terror, they’ve passed the financial crisis three years before Tohoku earthquake and hadn’t had such great loss. But much different with Yaotome Goro, Yabu’s father hadn’t even mentioned anything at all about conducting charity or some other humanity activities in his life.  
  
Though his calm demeanor won over his visage like always, Yabu’s mind was too preoccupied with all the data from Yaotome Industries. He was probably tenser than usual, and he could feel his shoulders were as hard as a long block of ice. But as much as he wanted to, the brunette just couldn’t stop thinking; if he snatched the dockyards of Yaotome Industries away and broke them into pieces, what would that make him be?  
  
The _ding_ sound of the elevator took him back to the earth. Yabu immediately walked further into the Park Hyatt Shinjuku’s lobby, his eyes wandering around every corner of the room, searching for any silhouette of Inoo Kei. But he didn’t found any, and it made him somehow a little angry. He had told Inoo to wait for him in the lobby and that’s just what he’s supposed to do. _What is he doing_ , the young master thought.  
  
Yabu was a little mad when he walked to the reception desk. He was about to ask the female receptionist to call his penthouse so that he could ask Inoo to come down immediately, but then interrupted by a man almost as tall as himself, with black hair and suits and a hotel tag on his right chest. To tell the truth, Yabu couldn’t care less, but the guy insisted.  
  
“Excuse me, Sir, I’m Tamamori Yuta, and I’m the manager of this hotel.”  
  
“Wait a second. Can I just call to my room?” Yabu _almost_ glared at Yuta while pointing to a phone on the reception desk.  
  
“We have an important message for you, Sir.”  
  
“Call my room, please.” Yabu spoke to the receptionist. The female receptionist then pick up the handle of the phone and started calling Yabu’s penthouse, while Yabu, without looking at the hotel manager, calmly asked, “From who?”  
  
“Your _cousin_.” Yuta answered.  
  
Upon hearing what Yuta had said, Yabu’s eyebrows knitted. He raised his hand and signaled the receptionist to stop calling.  
  
“My _what_?”  
  
“Your cousin, Sir. The young man called _Kei_.” Yuta said, his face showing that he had expected this kind of conversation.  
  
“Alright. You know that he is not my cousin.” It was a statement, not a question.  
  
“Of course.” Yuta nodded knowingly.  
  
“The reason _why_ I don’t have cousins is because I am the youngest in my family, and all my sisters and their children live in United States.” Yabu kept explaining. He watched bemusedly as Yuta nodded, the manager’s lips twitching as he held a smile. “So, what did he say?”  
  
“He’s waiting for you in the restaurant, Sir.”  
  
Yabu’s eyes darted to the direction of the Kozue restaurant, the high-end restaurant which is a part of Park Hyatt hotel. He was surprised that Inoo would wait for him in there, considering he had been all fidgety the first time he entered the Park building. Yabu was about to leave when, however, Yuta, again, tried to talk to him.  
  
“Kei-san is an _interesting_ young man.” Yuta uttered, as if stating the obvious.  
  
The rich brunette might look as if he was blinking calmly. But inside, he felt his heart missed a beat hearing Yuta’s comment about Inoo Kei, his mind questioning the manager’s right to do so. Yabu smiled his unreadable smile, Yabu laid his palm on Yuta’s shoulder before walking away from the reception desk, not minding Yuta’s ‘good evening’ greeting whatsoever. But, well, it wasn’t like he’s _jealous_ or something.  
  
  
  
  
  
Inside the Kozue restaurant of Park Hyatt Tokyo, Yabu wandered his eyes, still looking for any sign of Inoo’s figure around the wide room. He saw people, male, female, young, elders, children, adults, wearing all expensive kind of clothing, talking elegantly on their own tables. But of all the heads inside this extravagant restaurant, Inoo’s presence were not recognizable for him. He was hoping Inoo to sit on a table near the window, but he couldn’t see him, not his bundle of raven black hair, not a sign of his pale skin, making him a little anxious.  
  
Until _suddenly_ , someone covered both of Yabu’s eyes with their palms from behind. Since the hands felt like they belonged to a shorter man, Yabu couldn’t help but bending his back a little backward. He took those soft hands with his own as he uncovered his eyes, his ears catching a sound of a happy giggle behind him.  
  
The tall brunette then turned on his heels, only to be welcomed by an extremely bright smile of a guy he had been looking for. Inoo was standing there, his hair not as messy as the last time Yabu left him to work, his skin almost glowing, and his grin warm and pleasant, erasing all of his worries over any matters in the world. Somehow, maybe, _just_ maybe, due to the surprising gesture, Yabu’s heart beat faster than usual.  
  
Or was it something else entirely?  
  
“Ko-chan, how do I _look_?” Inoo asked, spinning on his heels to show Yabu his new outfit. He was wearing a formal white shirt and black tie, and black tight blazer, in which the lower hem was a shade more gray than the other part. The hooker didn’t appear like a _hooker_ anymore. “I got this outfit from Yamada Ryosuke. You know him? They say he’s one of the _really_ famous designers in the whole country.”  
  
Yabu’s angers and anxiousness was washed away to the shore, and he was unmistakably dazed in return. He hadn't even yet able to smile. He felt his cheeks grew warmer for some reasons, and there came an attempt to peck those flustered cheeks with his lips. But instead of doing what he was thinking about, Yabu could only stare.  
  
“Anyway, you’re late.” Inoo uttered, bringing Yabu back to earth.  
  
“And you’re… _stunning_.” Yabu said, tracing his own hand along Inoo’s left arm, stopping on the smaller male’s palm, holding it for a second before letting it go. He watched it as that wide grin on Inoo’s face grew sweeter, and that pale skin flustered into pale red.  
  
“You’re forgiven.” Inoo snickered rather shyly.  
  
“Now, shall we go?” The rich brunette asked, blooming a smile so _sweet_ with all his honesty.  


 

 

 

 

Inoo was fidgeting as they entered the front door of the secret restaurant. Hell, he had lived in Shinjuku for years already, yet if he didn’t met Yabu days ago, certainly he wouldn’t ever know that such restaurant actually existed. Aronia de Takazawa only opened when there’s at least a single reservation, and the whole front building looking more like a modern house rather than an actual restaurant. The interior was very exclusive, with many wooden scluptures that were polished so good they might cost him _two_ nights, all with fancy lights and a wide, museum-like but almost empty space. Once they were inside, they were ushered by the waitress to the basement floor, and Inoo couldn’t stop touching his nose, the back of his ears, and his styled bang. He was certainly nervous like he never did before.  
  
Amused to the smaller male, Yabu smiled and touched the center of Inoo’s back with his large palm, giving it a light push of courage.  
  
“You’ll be fine. Stop fidgeting.” The tall rich bunette said, half-whispering as they walked down the hallway. The waitress was walking in front of them, and for some reason Yabu didn’t want her to hear what they talked about.  
  
“But it’s my _first time_ attending business dinner.” Inoo complained, half-whispering back. His eyebrows were knitted and he couldn’t help but pout. A slight of panic made his visage. “I don’t know what I have to do. I’ve never done a _freaking_ business dinner. And I’m wearing real suits! I don’t even know what the hell’s that _supposed_ to _mean_!”  
  
“Watch your _language_ , okay? You wouldn’t want to make Yaotome-san get heart attack.” Yabu tried to calm him down, but his words made Inoo glared at him annoyedly. “And it’s just _dinner_. Only with more pair of spoons and forks, and foods that come and go, so no need to worry yourself.”  
  
“No chopsticks?”  
  
“Depends.”  
  
Inoo huffed.  
  
“I should’ve had asked Yuta about table manner, seriously.”  
  
It was Yabu’s turn to furrow upon hearing Inoo’s mumble. For some reasons, he just wasn’t able to recall the name that the smaller male had mentioned—that it was supposed to be the manager that had talked to him half an hour before. But he was plainly too ignorant to people that didn’t draw his intereset, therefore his heart couldn’t help but wonder, _who the hell is Yuta?_  
  
At the same time, the waitress pushed open the covered-with-velvet twin doors that led to the main private dinning hall which looked even more elaborate compared to the first floor. It was even too exclusive that Inoo could count how many heads were present in the room; in which only eight people in total. A pair sat on the corner of the room, four people sat on a table across of them. And there was another pair of heads that attracted Inoo’s attention. The two were an elderly and a young man probably his age, sitting on a table rather in the middle of the room. The elder one had his hair all white, but was definitely a noble man, looking at the way he sat. The younger one, well, Inoo literally couldn’t see his face. All of them wore formal dresses. All of them talked in a really small and elegant voices which were easily blown by the classical piano sonata in the background, and Inoo sighed to wash out his stress.  
  
Surprisingly, the waitress led both Yabu and Inoo to those pairs of old man and his grandson, and once the young man’s eyes met Inoo’s, he swore he saw those eyes sparkled like jet black marbles—probably a pearl out of a breed between clam and squid, something like that. The two immediately stood up from their chairs when they saw Yabu Kota, and bowed to Inoo in a respectful way. After bowing back in silence, Inoo studied the grandson; the man was probably two centimeters taller than him or something, had a shade of darker skin compared to other normal Japanese, and had his pretty long brown hair parted to his right. He also had a really sharp yet looking strong jawline. The man’s cheeks were probably a little too hollow, but his shoulders were wide and strong looking that at least made Inoo’s autopilot wonder _how big_ is _this guy_ and how would it _feel_ to have _sex_ with him.  
  
The thought vanished five seconds afterward.  
  
“Yaotome-san, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Yabu Kota.” Yabu shook hand with the elder, before shaking the grandson and kept his smile on its place, “It’s nice to see you again, Hikaru-kun.”  
  
“Nice to see you again.” Hikaru repeated, nodding, shaking back Yabu’s hand.  
  
“This is a— _friend_ of mine, Inoo Kei.” Yabu then placed his hand on the back of Inoo’s shoulder.  
  
“It’s a pleasure, Young Man,” The elder Yaotome shook Inoo’s hand tight and strong that Inoo had to hold his winch by grinning widely. As he let go of Inoo’s smooth hand, the elder Yaotome then patted his grandson’s shoulder, saying, “This fireball over here is my grandson, Hikaru.”  
  
“I know nothing about fireballs, but it’s nice to meet you, Inoo-san.” Hikaru said, grinning in a friendly manner to Inoo as they shook hands. The grin was sweet and bright like a blinding sun, but with that Inoo realized something was off from the guy.  
  
 _They’re super rich but they let this guy has strange teeth arrangement, seriously?  
  
Well, not like he looks bad in them, though, _Inoo thought as he grinned in a friendly manner in return.  
  
“Thank you. Nice to meet you too, Yaotome-san,” Inoo said back, trying to be as polite as possible, before the four of them took a seat on an exclusive table for four.  
  
  
  
  
  
The first menu that was served on their table was some kind of baked potato dusted with brown cinnamon powder called _buttered potato_. It was served _so beautifully_ on a flat round plate, adored with a fork on the left and a knife on the right side, that Inoo couldn’t help but ‘wow’-ing the first time it came to his view. He immediately grabbed Yabu’s upper arm and stared at the taller male pleadingly like that of Cat in Boots’, not minding at one bit about the fact that Yabu was in the middle of talking so seriously with the elder Yaotome. Curious with Inoo’s intention, Yabu turned his head to the raven hair and asked what’s wrong.  
  
“Can I take picture of the food?”  
  
“ _No_.” Was Yabu’s firm and immediate answer, not even lowering the volume of his tone.  
  
The two Yaotomes threw their gaze towards each other bemusedly, before a pair of light chuckle was heard. Realizing it, Yabu was obviously embarassed, but he’s also a calm devil in nature, so he could cover it as if nothing had really happened.  
  
“I apologize.” He bowed a little, almost flat-facedly.  
  
“No, it’s okay,” The elder Yaotome said, laughing lightly. He turned his eyes to Inoo and smiled warmly like Inoo’s own grandparent. His tone was wise and understanding, making the hooker somehow felt at ease. “Hikaru and his siblings are like that too. They always take pictures when our family has dinner outside. It’s really a youth’s thing. Technology is just unstopable—even an old man like me has to deal with screens every single day.”  
  
Feeling his cheeks smeared in pink, Inoo bowed and watched as the elder Yaotome turned his head from him and talked with Yabu again. He then lowered his eyes to the lonely potato, before picking up the fork with his right hand and the knife with his right. _Why do they put the fork on the left side?_ Inoo wondered, tilting his head and furrowed a little confusedly. He then looked up to the three men around him; all of them held their knifes on the right hands and the forks on the left, and so he decided to imitate their way of eating it.  
  
“However, Yabu-san, I believe a company’s destiny is supposed to be _settled_ by its owner, the ones that have built and developed it from scratches, and not by anyone else, not even a corporate raid.” Inoo heard Hikaru argued. He was looking at Yabu rather irritatedly, but Yabu was as as tight as ever that the atmosphere felt not the least comfortable for dinner. Nobody was smiling, and both young men—Yabu and Hikaru—were looking as scary to Inoo’s eyes. “And to be _honest_ , I have heard about your statement and the rumours that were flying around and right now I’m having difficulties in figuring out your _real_ intentions to _our_ company.”  
  
It was a statement and not a question, and though he actually knew what it meant, Yabu didn’t even nod to Hikaru as he finished his last piece of potato butter. Inoo watched in complete silence with his two eyes wide open rather innocently, feeling the tense among the three men of the higher class. He noted to himself that this was just _not_ his thing.  
  
The second course came right after, and again, Inoo was mesmerized from head to toe. Among froth that came from the ocean wave, there were a bunch of sea creatures—of sea snails, squids, small orange fishes, some kind of colorful anemones, seaweeds—served beauteously on a rectangular plate, and the serving itself was called _Iso Asobi_ —playing on the rocky shore. They looked so beautiful and delicious, but too beautiful to eat that Inoo felt bad. But the dish seemed to be _really_ expensive, and the hooker wouldn’t want to send it to waste. It’s too bad that he couldn’t perpetuate the dishes into pictures, since he was so sure that he wouldn’t ever be able to come to this restaurant anymore in the future.  
  
Thinking that the plate was actually a side dish, Inoo waited for another plate to come. He was expecting a bowl of rice, and he thought the three men around him were also doing the same thing.  
  
“You’ve read that my grandfather once built shipyards for the Vietnam War, don’t you.” At the same time, Hikaru spoke, a bit emotionally, but still trying to be as polite as possible. “He also helped Japan when the _bubble_ came crashing down this country. He cooperated with the government and helped his environment. He’s founding orphanages in Miyagi in a regular basis after the earthquake. He has _contributed_ to this country _more_ than your _father_ has ever done in his life, and you can _never_ change that.”  
  
“I surely _can’t_. But I’m here to buy your company, not to change your history.” With his unreadable smile that both Yaotome couldn’t figure out, Yabu shook his head. He was becoming more stiff than he already had, but he kept his calm demeanor on his visage. It’s just that, there’s just no way he would surrender. The young master then took his chopsticks and said politely, “Gentlemen, _Bon appetit_.”  
  
Upon hearing the phrase being said, watching the three started digging into their dishes, Inoo’s eyes grew somewhat wider. It seemed like they weren’t waiting for the main dish like he was. He blinked a few times before grabbing Yabu’s upper arm again, confused.  
  
“Where’s the _rice_?” Inoo asked, whispering this time. But in fact Hikaru was still able to hear him that the young brunette turned his gaze towards him and watched him in silence. Inoo nervously took a glance at Hikaru before turning back to Yabu.  
  
Sighing, the young CEO, who somehow answered, “There is _no_ rice, Kei.”  
  
“…No rice?” The hooker heard Hikaru chuckled.  
  
Yabu shook his head bemusedly and Inoo bit his lower lip. He hesitantly took his own chopsticks and started eating his dish—which serving was even far _lesser_ compared to the cheapest _gyuudon_ serving in any fast food chains in the whole country.  
  
After watching Inoo took his second bite, Hikaru’s eyes darted back to Yabu, and their expression changed drastically at the same time—from a little entertained by Inoo’s innocence to yet emotionally irked by each other. Yabu himslef felt like his chest was burning, though this was only business, and he was clearly showing his ‘cruel busninessman’ side to Inoo at the moment.  
  
“I assure you will never, _ever_ , be able to take over my grand father’s company, Yabu-san.” Hikaru almost gritted his teeth. His eyebrows were knitted and the wrinkles on his forehead were seen clearly. His hollow cheeks were tight, and he fisted his palm on the table.  
  
“I will do my best.” Yabu answered rather coldly.  
  
And to hell with symphaty, for losing was just not his nature.  
  
“Even if you got my grandfather’s assets, what would you _do_ after that?” Hikaru almost raised up his tone in anger.  
  
“I’m going to separate it into pieces and resell them to different buyers.”  
  
“ _You_ —”  
  
The elder Yaotome placed his palm on his grandson’s shoulder to calm him down. Clearing his throat, the old man said quietly, “I honestly don’t like this idea of _you_ treating _my_ company—which is turning fourty three years old this year—like some kind of a _wreckage_.”  
  
“Mind you, Yaotome-san, but I am paying a lot of money to you and you are going to be a _very_ wealthy man.” Yabu turned his face to the elder Yaotome. His tone was serious that it seemed somehow scary in Inoo’s ears.  
  
“I am rich enough. I just want to keep my dockyards.” The elder Yaotome glared at Yabu. “You know every businessmen in this country get _sick_ everytime they heard your family’s name? As they’ve said, _you_ , pure capitalists, are _bastards_ ; shattering people’s revenue, employment, _life_ , acting God.”  
  
Hearing this, Inoo turned his head to Yabu. He noticed Yabu’s eyes dilated for a second, and Inoo swore his heart skipped a beat.  
  
“You seem to enjoy depicting _my family_ as evil, but we are certainly _not_. And, if you would be so good mind that it has _nothing_ to do with this deal. This is _business_ among humans, Yaotome-san, and I’d like to remind you that you’re also a part of this whole capitalism that you’re talking about.”  
  
The air had become very stiff that Inoo lose his appetite. The third plate, the dessert, a slice of Kyoto’s maccha soft cake and a small teaspoon maccha gelato called _Kyoo no Ishidatami_ —Kyoto’s Stone Pavement, that came served onto their tables didn’t attract the young raven’s attention like before. With his eyes widely opened in a rather innocent way, Inoo turned his face alternately, from Yabu, to Hikaru, to the elder Yaotome.  
  
None of the three gentlemen had a happy face, and he was sure he felt the atmosphere becoming hotter and _suffocating_ each seconds passed as if the entire building was on fire.  
  
“ _Leave_ my company alone.” The elder Yaotome demanded.  
  
“I can’t do that, I have millions of dollars of share.”  
  
“Then let me _buy_ your stock back.”  
  
“You don’t have the _money_.”  
  
“We _will_. We’ll have _contract_ with the government.” Hikaru added firmly.  
  
“I’m afraid there will be _none_ , Hikaru-kun. Your contract is going to be held still in the congress.”  
  
“The _fuck_ —what _game_ are you playing?! Now you’ve got a dirty politician or something?!” Hikaru snapped, half standing up, his upper body bent to Yabu’s direction. He had his two eyes wide open, and he was certainly in a point where he couldn’t hold his boiling emotion anymore.  
  
“Hikaru, easy.”  
  
“ _Tsk_! I have enough, Grand Father.” With a frustrated face, Hikaru dropped his napkin—almost throwing it—onto the table and stood up. He bowed to Inoo who had been dumbfounded the entire time. “Inoo-kun, it’s very _pleasant_ to meet you, but I better go outside. I need some _fresh air_.”  
  
With his mouth slightly hang open, his mind clouded and perplexed, the skin of his nape goosebumped, Inoo watched Hikaru’s back as the Yaotome Industries’ heir walked out of the dinning hall. The pretty raven haired male then turned his glance at Yabu worriedly, before somehow noticing that the taller had the corner of his eyes turning a little crimson.  
  
And he decided that he didn’t like any of what just happened.  
  
  


*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
The raven kept staring at Yabu even until they got into the young master’s penthouse. As he sat on the king sized bed of the penthouse’s bedroom, Yabu was sitting on the long sofa right across the bed, his ginger head rested on the backrest comfortably. Yabu was closing his eyes as if he was having a nap or some light sleep. But Inoo kept his eyes on his employer not because Yabu seemed like sleeping. It was more because of the fact that Yabu had all muscles in his face wrikled, and his eyelids moving rapidly, which indicated that he was actually feeling kind of restless.  
  
Inoo couldn’t help but to feel bad for Yabu. But at the same time he concluded that what Yabu was trying to do was not good; that he was trying to destroy someone else’ life and—as what the elder Yaotome had said—playing God. Still, he saw Yabu trying to deal with this situation professionally as a businessman, but in a sense things didn’t feel right.  
  
Hanging open his lower jaw, Inoo kept staring at Yabu, who had gotten rid of his tux and his tie, leaving only his white shirt and his black pants and feet that were covered by the hotel slippers. The shirt had two snaps unbuttoned, showing the curve of his collarbone, a little of his chest, and his somewhat glowing skin under the yellow light of the bedroom’s night lamps. Inoo had to build a courage in his own chest before able to speak to break the ice.  
  
“Ko-chan. Are you tired?” He asked, out of courtesy.  
  
Yabu heaved up his chest a little before letting out a long sigh. Inoo was, on the other hand, feeling glad that _Ko-chan_ was actually listening to him.  
  
“No.” The taller answered, keeping his eyes closed.  
  
The entire room felt suffocating making him hard to breathe, and Inoo didn’t know what else to say. He was kind of irritated at the same time, for it was already past eleven and Yabu had been acting like a loathing ghost ever since they came back from the dinner. Thus, Inoo had actually been in a ‘business’ for a little while already, and Tegoshi had taught him that _‘if you mean business then don’t do personal’_ , so he actually knew how to be more professional in this kind of situation. He had tried to apply this theory and shut his heart from everything that concerned money—since the day he decided to sell his body. But Yabu, one _gorgeous_ businessman raised up in America, the guy that had the entire world in his fists, the guy that were sitting still on the couch across the bed, was just probably not mature enough to separate the two realm.  
  
“I see you’re pissed because Yaotome-san doesn’t want to let go of his old dockyards and give it to you. And you can’t accept it that they’re persistent in protecting _what_ they _have_.” Inoo uttered, almost out of the blue, _almost_ expressionlessly.  
  
At least what he had said, however, was able to make Yabu open his eyes.  
  
“Thanks for making me sounded like _the villain_ here.” Yabu said back rather coldly. But not wanting to glare at Inoo, Yabu lowered his eyes to the raven’s knees instead.  
  
Biting his inner cheek, Inoo blinked several times. He was probably talking too much, and worse, worsening both the already icy cold situation and Yabu’s mood, so he fell silent. Of what he could do to melt the Himalaya between the two of them, he couldn’t figure it out. There’s no kitchen, so Inoo couldn’t cook for him. There were two giant flat screen televisions, but Inoo didn’t know what movies would entertain Yabu, or whether it’s a good idea in the first place. Thinking for some moments, Inoo then came up with what he _thought_ he could do best.  
  
Being the _whore_ , seducing the young master.  
  
“Are you not too tight, Ko-chan?” Inoo said, in a rather seductive voice, a bit like a cat’s mewl but enough to make it sound sexy and _inviting_. He got up from the bed and walked towards the sofa where Yabu was sitting on. He made sure that his eyes were fixed to Yabu’s as he approached the taller. “Relax for a second, or you’re gonna grow grey hair tomorrow.”  
  
Yabu averted his gaze back to Inoo as he rested his propped his temple with his two left fingers.  
  
“I’d like to try.” He replied, not sounding at the least allured.  
  
Pouting, Inoo half lidded his eyes as he stopped in front of the young master, bending his body a little towards him and his left hand and held it with both of his own palms. He pulled it gently and tried to get Yabu stand up on his feet, but kind of failed miserably. But Inoo did not want to give up just yet. He had never failed in seducing before, so he thought tonight he wouldn’t either.  
  
“Ko-chan. Let’s take a bubble bath together!” He said, trying to sound cheerful.  
  
However, out of a sudden, Yabu sighed and pulled his hand off of Inoo’s in a rather harsh way. It was almost like he’s snapping off Inoo’s hand, but gentle enough that instead of feeling hurt or pained, Inoo was only left surprised. It was not the first time Yabu Kota had left him _dumbfounded_ , and yet as a matter of fact, Yabu was his hardest to deal with client who just turned everything upside down, including Inoo's entire track record.  
  
“Not now.” Yabu stood up, throwing his eyes away from Inoo’s. Without hesitancy, the CEO walked out of the bedroom door.  
  
“Where are you going?” Inoo was certainly getting annoyed. As he asked the taller, his forehead was furrowed and his tone was rather pleading.  
  
“Downstairs. I need a smoke.” The young master answered, before closing the bedroom door behind him, leaving Inoo standing in the middle of the room, baffled.  
  
“… _Eh_? You’re smoking?” Inoo raised his voice a little while half running towards the door, trying to run after Yabu but to no avail. He heard the front door of the penthouse being closed, and Inoo stopped.  
  
He was officially left in the entire wide space all by himself, yet the air still felt suffocating that his throat, his eyes, his heart, _hurt_.  
  


  
*-*-*-*-*

  
  
  
The restaurant of the Park Hyatt Tokyo was actually closed at two past thirty at night. All the chairs had been placed upside-down on the tables, and all lamps had mostly been switched off. The only light came directly from the moon, and in such melancholiness there was no other people in there anymore—not any hotel persons, no _one_. But within the darkness that soon would be washed away by the dawn, as the clock pointed to _three_ past fourteen, Yabu was still seen sitting alone on a table for two, in a space of the Kozue restaurant specified for smokers. His back leaned against the chair’s rest, his eyes staring at the light illumination of the city of Shinjuku outside the window, his left hand holding a bundle of half smoked tabacco. On his table, there was only a three quarter full bottle of Languedoc, an empty white wine glass, and an ashtray.  
  
It was summer and the sun would rise soon. It was more than three hours already, and Yabu was still feeling kind of guilty of what he had done to Inoo before; snapping his hands away like he did not want him. It was not his intention, but at the same time he just did not want to be bothered. Now he couldn’t help but wonder what Inoo was doing inside the room, all alone with nobody to talk to. But it was three in the morning, probably Inoo had already been deep in slumber.  
  
Therefore, killing his cigarette on the ashtray rather emotionally, Yabu stood up and left the empty restaurant, walking fast to the elevator to go back to the fiftith floor. He had the urge to see Inoo as soon as he could, though he wasn’t sure why.  
  
What he found when he was standing right in front of his penthouse’s door was, however, not what he had expected. In fact, he had never had any imagination that it would happen.  
  
From outside the door, Yabu could hear a sonata being played. It was quite hazy, but obviously there was someone playing the baby grand piano inside his hotel room. The melody was slow and rather sad, and Yabu froze on his spot. He did not recognize this melody; hell, he barely knew classic at all. But the way the slow tones adoring the surrounding was plainly… _beautiful_.  
  
 _Is it Kei?_  
  
Yabu turned his body so that he could lean his back against the door. He set his both ears as he listened to the beautiful sonata, feeling all regretful and sad yet calm and light at the same time, until it faded away and stopped.  
  
The first half of the second movement of the piano sonata was not as slow as the first, and Yabu was still standing out the door and listening to the melody in silence. Until at one point when suddenly the piano became rather violent, the young master decided to enter the room because his heart couldn’t stop beating like mad. And there he witnessed it with his own eyes; the lid of the baby grand piano was opened, and from the range between the body and the lid, Yabu could see Inoo’s beautiful pale face, all bowing, and his shoulders shaking, following the way his fingers dancing on the ivory keys in a fast pace, creating a lovely but powerful melody. The third movement was very different with the first.  
  
And Inoo was too concentrated that he didn’t aware of Yabu’s presence.  
  
The taller male walked further into the room. He led himself towards the wooden divider of the living room to have better access to see Inoo’s unpredictable solo concert, and there he could also see how Inoo’s long fingers danced like there were no barriers among the keyboard. Yabu was amazed. He was _mesmerized_ that he couldn’t say anything, and he couldn’t describe how perfect Inoo’s vast playing was.  
  
Moments later, Inoo reached the what looking like the most right part of the keyboard with his fingers and ended it with three dramatic stacatos. He was still not aware of Yabu’s presence until the tall brunette gave him applause, and his face became as red as the boiled crabs.  
  
“ _When_ did you get in?” Inoo asked out of embarrassment.  
  
“ _Where_ did you learn piano?” Instead of answering, Yabu asked back. He walked approaching the raven hooker and sat next to him on the piano’s rectangular stool.  
  
Sighing, Inoo tried to compose himself and just stared at the black and white keys in front of him. He laid his right hand on it, pushing the keys one after another, making another yet slow but beautiful notes, which was different than before.  
  
“My grandfather used to be a world war soldier.” Inoo tried to explain. “He learned piano in China from his first girlfriend—who later died out of war itself. When I was _really_ small, he taught everything he’d learned. And since Beethoven was his favorite, I knew some of his pieces.”  
  
Yabu watched and heard it closely as Inoo only played a piece of another sonata with only his right hand. It was not as powerful, but it’s just so lovely that Yabu felt himself becoming high.  
  
“You’re _amazing_.” Whether or not Yabu was aware of his own action, he took Inoo’s left hand and held it gently with his. His eyes never left Inoo’s flustered face, though the raven wasn’t staring back at him. “Why didn’t you seek a career as a musician instead?”  
  
“ _Why_ do you think I end up being a _hooker_?” Without stopping, Inoo glanced at Yabu and chuckled. He kept playing with the keys as if the notes were there by his heart.  
  
It was meant as a joke, but unexpectedly, Yabu took it rather seriously.  
  
“… _Why_?”  
  
Inoo's heart missed a bit and his eyes dilated for a second upon hearing such question. It was the first time in his life someone had ever questioned his decision to be a male prostitute, so he actually didn't know what to answer; whether he should joke around, or just tell the truth.  
  
“I tore my family apart, that’s why.” In the end, he decided to do both. There was a dry and bitter laugh, before it died away and Inoo smiled, his left hand _squeezed_ Yabu’s in return. It was warm, and the both of them felt comfortable with each other. “No, just kidding. The truth is, I ran away from home. I was a screwed up teenager. I’m still this screwed up even until today.”  
  
Yabu couldn’t describe any of the feeling that he was having, squirling inside his heart and his mind. He was all silent, but he couldn’t stop staring at the pretty man next to him, _hypnotized_. The piano sonata that Inoo played washed away his anxiety, and he felt light like he had never did before.  
  
When Inoo stopped playing, Yabu didn’t know what encouraged him, what gave him this push, or what made him wanted to do it. But he couldn’t help but to lean down to Inoo’s face, slowly, his eyes blurred, his head boiling, but his lips aiming for those plump ones. He was glad that Inoo did not react, because his confidence raised up to the coulds as the distance between their lips were lessened and lessened. He wanted to _kiss_ Inoo, he just wanted to kiss the pretty pianist on the lips _so badly_. He started to lower his eyelids as they were only an _inch_ apart…  
  
But then Inoo pulled his head backward.  
  
The raven’s wide eyes stared at Yabu and clearly rejected Yabu’s effort.  
  
But Yabu was not one to lose, so he tried to kiss Inoo on the lips over again…  
  
…Just to be _rejected_ for the second time.  
  
It was the first time in his life Yabu felt like his world crumbled on to him. The feeling was worse than any bitter business he had ever done.  
  
But Inoo was still staring at him, with his brown irises directed to his darker ones. Yabu swore there was sadness in them, as if he was disapponted as well as Yabu himself. But Inoo was a hooker, how would he even know?  
  
The hooker then leaned towards him, and instead of aiming to the businessman’s lips, he aimed for his neck. Inoo buried his fingers on those brown locks. He laid some kisses on that firm neck, then licking it, slicking it with his tongue, making it all wet and comfortable before starting to give a bite.  
  
Yabu was only silent. He was still casted down after the rejection, but had no other choice but to enjoy Inoo’s service. Out of his disappointment, instead of backing away, Yabu grabbed Inoo by the waist and grind their body together. At one point, Yabu started to attack Inoo’s neck back, marking it anywhere, at any part of the skin that he could find, deciding to just use Inoo as what he had hired him to be. Their desires, their lust, were beginning to mount, and out of lust and disappointed themselves, both Yabu and Inoo stood up, with Inoo closing the keyboard cover of the baby grand piano before sitting on it, his hips straddled, and Yabu standing in between his legs.  
  
They unbuttoned the snaps of their white shirts at the same time, but leaving them hung on their bodies with only their chests showing. Yabu sneaked his hands onto Inoo’s body and started to roam them all over those pale and milky skin, playing with the nipples, the navel, and Inoo squirmed. Hearing Inoo’s moans, which were as beautiful as the sonatas that he had played before, Yabu’s autopilot looked for the raven’s belt and unbuckled it. Lowering Inoo’s pants and boxer rather impatiently, once Yabu saw the male prostitute’s hooker, he took it in his hand and started massaging it in a sexual way.  
  
“Ahh, Ko-chan, felt _good_ …” The hooker purposefully grinded his own crotch to Yabu’s clother one. He intentionally rubbed himself onto Yabu’s sensitive member and made the taller groaned in pleasure. As Yabu buried his face on Inoo’s shoulder, the raven unbuckled Yabu’s belt in turn and revealed the manhood, which had been standing proudly only for him, out of its cage.  
  
Inoo then grabbed their hardened members in his right pianist hand altogether, stroking it rythmically, and Yabu might not be able to become more turned on by this gesture. The burning atmosphere came back all over again, and on the baby grand piano inside the penthouse, and most of all, out of their sadness and desperation, both men lost themselves in each other.  
  



End file.
